*WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the first five episodes of season two of The Traitors (Ireland).*
The original Traitors selected in the first episode. RTÉ
RTÉ
THE VENGABUS HAS broken down.
Or at least that is how Páraic Kerrigan views the fate of The Traitors’ original band of deceivers, three of whom have now been banished in the space of four round table votes.
Páraic became the latest to go last night after the faithfuls mounted a near-unanimous case against him, leaving Carla as the last of the original traitors standing.
And according to Páraic, the problems started much earlier than his particularly uncomfortable final roundtable.
“If traitors are not united from the start, and if fractures emerge that quickly, the wheels of the Vengabus fall apart,” he told reporters today.
The first wheel may have come loose with the recruitment of Edelle.
After the original three traitors (Páraic, Carla and Fionula) were selected, they were immediately tasked with recruiting a fourth member to their ranks.
Páraic said the decision was “contentious”, with the trio eventually having to put it to a vote. He had been “fighting hard” to recruit Laura instead, but Edelle ultimately got the nod.
It proved to be a short-lived recruitment. Edelle was banished at the very next round table, after Laura led suspicions against her, based partly on the now-infamous fact that Edelle had downed a glass of water after the traitors were selected.
In an awkward twist for Páraic, the woman he had wanted to recruit had helped expose the woman they chose instead.
“We’d just got to know each other. We sort of remembered each other’s names, but it was really hard to get a measure on people without conclave,” Páraic said.
Edelle’s recruitment and subsequent banishment created a “dent in the traitors’ unity”, he said, adding that he did not believe they ever fully regained Fionula’s trust afterwards.
Still, Páraic has no complaints about the people who eventually caught him.
Plaeyers pictured at the round table vote on Monday. RTÉ
RTÉ
He described this year’s faithfuls as an “incredible bunch” who are “ruthless” when they arrive at the Round Table armed with their evidence.
“With their three-point arguments, they are fired and good to go.”
A very tired traitor
And there was plenty of evidence against Páraic last night, with perhaps the most damning proof being: the man looked tired.
Denis constructed an impressively detailed case around Páraic’s apparent exhaustion, reasoning at one point that “murdering is a nocturnal activity”.
So, how much sleep was the nocturnal murderer actually getting?
Páraic would only say it was “a bit less sleep”, but said the exhaustion went beyond simply not getting enough rest.
“You are holding the cup of being a traitor,” Páraic said.
Holding that cup for days on end, he explained, eventually begins to take its toll.
Aoife and Páraic pictured en route to the challenge in yesterday’s episode. RTÉ
RTÉ
It wasn’t just the physical exhaustion or the bags under his eyes that gave him away, he believes, but his energy and general “vibe”.
There was, of course, one other small clue.
“If I stand up here and I’m a trai–,” Páraic began during the roundtable, before rapidly correcting himself to “faithful”.
He knew immediately what he had done.
Páraic joked today that “it’s 2026, and I’m happy to revive the Nadine Coyle moment for myself”, referencing the infamous interview for the early 2000′s show Popstars, in which the Girls Aloud singer appeared to forget her own date of birth.
The Freudian slip was “terrible”, he admitted, but he reckons he was already doomed by that point anyway.
‘Lads, lads, lads’
Watching the series back has also left Páraic interested in another dynamic developing in the castle.
“Oh, there’s definitely a lads, lads, lads vibe,” he said.
Páraic said the dynamic was “turning my stomach” towards the end of his time in the game, largely because he felt some of the men were refusing to seriously suspect one another.
He had even tried to use that to his advantage as a traitor by suggesting the pattern of women being murdered pointed towards women carrying out the murders.
“Obviously, didn’t work for me,” he conceded.
He is now interested to see how long the alliance between some of the male contestants can survive.
“I don’t know if the lads, lads, lads will last long,” Páraic said.
Páraic also questioned whether there is a gender dynamic to how emotional reactions are interpreted in the castle, particularly after Aoife became upset in last night’s episode.
He said he felt her reaction was legitimate but watched as even that emotional moment became another reason for some players to suspect her.
“There seems to be that script that women in the game are expected to follow that the guys aren’t meant to follow,” he said.
The English teacher
Alongside lying about being a traitor, Páraic had also spent his time in Slane Castle telling everyone he was an English teacher.
He’s actually an assistant professor of communication and information at University College Dublin.
Paraic pictured in the round tower. RTÉ
RTÉ
Páraic said he initially considered pretending to be a librarian, before deciding even that might sound a little too mysterious.
His decision to hide his academic career came after watching previous versions of The Traitors, where he said he had seen academics targeted early because of their qualifications.
“I just wanted to be kind of blending in for the first few days and not bringing attention to myself,” he explained.
An English teacher, he reckoned, wouldn’t raise too many questions.
It worked. For a while, anyway.
Páraic said he knew by day two or three that he was unlikely to make it much further than day seven or eight, and by his final roundtable he was determined not to damage Carla’s game on his way out.
He has no regrets about becoming a traitor either. “I absolutely loved it,” Páraic said.
Given another chance, he would choose the cloak all over again.
“I was quite happy to murder, plot, deceive and get slaughtering,” he said.
“And get the Vengabus moving for everybody.”