My mother was a woman of the '50s who had a family in the '70s while finding her political and feminist voice. She could make marvellous three-course meals after teaching all day but hated it. Because of that legacy, it took me a long time to realise the delights of the family table.

The main thing I've done for my children is not to give them a stupid name, like actors do.

I really want to work with Mike Leigh.

I want to interact creatively with the directors I work with - it's a thrilling way to work.

The actor's job is to put themselves in the shoes of the character they are trying to portray as truthfully as possible.

I've been very lucky with having a run of working with very special people and it just makes you work harder.

It's a collective experience when you're making TV. You think of all the people who work hard to make this extraordinary and you just hope that it works well.

I was always quite mature as a child and as I get older I'm regressing.

I never read the good press and never read the bad press. If you believe the good press you're finished. If you believe the bad press, you won't be able to continue.

My parents have a brilliant ear for languages and mimicry and accents, which I think I've inherited - that I can listen to things and pick them up.

I never discuss my troubles in a relationship. It's best to just keep those thoughts to yourself.

Because I don't live there anymore, I've fallen in love with London again.

As long as you're chasing something, that keeps you alive, right?

I watched 'Lagerfeld Confidential,' which was such an insight into the daily life of a maverick designer.

Now it comes to this stage of my career when I get to play the wicked witch all the time. You know you start off with Cinderella and then you end up playing the stepmothers.

My favourite designers are Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel and Givenchy, but I wish I had loads of money to spend on them.

I didn't grow up reading magazines; I was very much in an environment where that would have been deemed trivial, frivolous.

Growing up, I wanted blond hair.

When I look at a magazine and I see Kate Winslet, I will buy it because Kate lends it a sense of achievement: she is brilliant, sexy, a mother.

I am very scatty, I don't follow things through, I forget things. I am not perfect.

I don't have a great relationship with food.

I was pregnant with my first child and so gloriously happy. I felt fecund and powerful.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) runs in my family, as do other mental health problems.

I am concerned that there's a cavalier attitude to the Irish Peace Process. What poor memories some have; I remember only too well the bag searches, the bomb scares and deaths. As they say, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

I don't want to be known as 'oh, Dervla, when she's on stage she's very good but she's terribly dreary', or 'another heavy night with Kirwan.'

I'm obviously slightly ill, because there is a burning desire to be perfect in me. It's probably the Catholic, or the ex-Catholic in me.

I've no desire to be away from my family for 16 hours a day.

Since I was 15 I've lived in fear that I'd never work again.

I'd much rather go for a long walk than spend an hour in the gym.

I take the kids horse riding every weekend at Quob Stables - the people there are lovely.

David Attenborough's 'Life' series is phenomenal. He's a wonderful modern soothsayer.

I'm a terrible cook but I wish I wasn't.

Yeah, I talk to everyone. I think that's the secret, you know. Keep it friendly, keep it warm. People just want to connect, don't they, at the end of the day?

I just love being in the middle of nowhere.

There's a difference between loneliness and solitude. You pursue solitude, I think. But loneliness is a completely different isolating thing.

There's still, dare I say it, a cultural propaganda against the Irish, that we are, as women, 'feisty.' I hate that word.

True Dare Kiss' is a gothic drama about a highly dysfunctional Mancunian family who, after 20 years, reconvene for the funeral of their father. I wanted to play Phil because I really liked the character, and there is an element of mystery about her - which I can't reveal.

I'm not a football fan, and not remotely interested in it.

Spending time away from family during filming, I think, for every working mum is always difficult. But it has to be done; there's no way round it you've just got to do it.

It makes a lot of people cringe, the idea of being a team player.

Sometimes, people are attracted to each other without knowing what or why or when it happens.

Getting pregnant proved to be a hell of a shock but it's really exciting.

I will always worry about where my career is going and am I any good.

I think I've got some actor's form of ADHD. I just can't do the same thing day in, day out.

I am quite a mercurial person.

I can be a totally different person from one day to the next, so it is difficult for me to stay in one role over a prolonged period.

I mean, the human race wouldn't continue if anyone told you how hard it is having kids, would it?

As a chind in Dublin, I can remember having my plate piled high with four or five vegetables - and I'm convinced to this day that my mother's home cooking helped to ward off illness.

When I was about nine, I was rushed to hospital to have my appendix removed. Like any child, I was more concerned about missing out on having fun with my friends than my health.

I moved to London when I was 18 to develop my acting career, but I still love going home to Ireland to recharge my batteries.