Traitors fan favourite, Paudie Moloney, has revealed it was his plan to play the “daddy and granddad” role in the game.
Paudie (68), a former prison officer from Kilmallock, Co Limerick, who was the last original traitor, was banished from Slane Castle yesterday.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Oliver Callan show, he said he was “disappointed” to say goodbye, but it’s “very hard” to last the entire game as a traitor.
“I was disappointed, of course. I know it’s not impossible – you can survive from start to finish as a traitor, but it’s very, very hard,” he said. “I got a good run, and I was happy with that.”
The Limerick man said playing the “daddy and grandad role” helped him throughout the show not to be detected as a traitor.
“At times, they eased away from me for a while, and I think they kind of said to themselves: ‘[He’s] probably harmless’. As to whether they underestimated me or not in that sense, I don’t know, because I wasn’t a threat to anybody in there. And that’s the way I liked it.”
Meanwhile, Paudie revealed he is a “hugger” in real life, following the viral moment from the show when traitors had to murder a player by hugging them.
Upon learning the task, Paudie said at the time: “I’m not being f***ing smart here right, but I’m not a f***ing hugger.” Later, his fellow Traitor, Nick, who was recruited by Paudie, gave Christine a hug of death.
Paudie told RTÉ: “I am a hugger, to be honest. The grandkids were all onto me: ‘What are you saying, granddad? You are a hugger.’
“Having said that, I wasn’t really a hugger in the castle. So had I hugged somebody in the castle, I think they’d have just [spotted] it straight away. So I was happy enough that Nick would take that,” he added.
When asked about the audience reaction and the “Paudie fever”, he said this is all “very new to him”.
“I wouldn’t be that kind of outgoing person like that, so it’s all very new to me, but I’m enjoying it.
“People are very nice and very good, and they come up and they talk to me, the strangers calling me Paudie, and I’m quite happy to just salute and say hello and have a chat.
“It wasn’t a performance, it genuinely wasn’t. It was me being me, and I tried to flow through it as best I could, as best in the background as I could.
“Even though you try to stay back, you’re going to be brought forward so and that’s how it happened,” he said.
The Limerick native said it was “brilliant” to have his son, Andrew, with him in the game.
“It was almost like still being in touch with home in a lot of ways, in that stressful environment.
“When I recruited him, obviously, a lot of people said my decision was wrong, but I did it with the best of intentions,” he said, adding he was “very disappointed” when Andrew was banished from the castle.
Not really like father, like son – Paudie is a master traitor, unlike his banished boy, Andrew: The Traitors Ireland’. Photo: RTÉ
Andrew also accidentally called Paudie “daddy” during one of the missions, almost giving away that they are related.
“I nearly turned around,” Paudie said. “But my neck is so stiff at the moment. My neck isn’t great, so I think I couldn’t turn around. I just copped it in time, stopped myself. So that was the close one.”
He also believes his 30 years of experience working in prison have “without a doubt” prepared him to join the Traitors game.
“In prison, you react to situations, and I reacted to an awful lot of situations in there without even feeling that reaction. You’re in that kind of mode where you are heightened, and you are watching what you say, and it just seemed to come naturally.
“Working in prison is a stressful job. There’s no getting away from that. And for anybody that’s worked there, they’ll know that.
“But inside, in the castle, when you are watching your back, you’re watching every word you say. You’re watching other people’s reactions to what you say, and you don’t know [if] you [made] a boo boo there.
“And there was one or two boo boos along the way. You’re kind of fighting to survive, if you like. So it was very, very stressful. It really was.”