{"id":251510,"date":"2025-12-25T23:52:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T23:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/251510\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T23:52:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T23:52:28","slug":"when-i-was-younger-id-gone-to-theatre-watched-it-loved-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/251510\/","title":{"rendered":"When I was younger I\u2019d gone to theatre, watched it, loved it"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in hospital having a hysterectomy when Princess Diana\u2019s funeral was on. I had fibroids, benign growths \u2014 if I didn\u2019t deal with them they\u2019d grow, eventually cause blockages and damage.<\/p>\n

I remember waking up on the Sunday, news of her death on the radio and it shocking the world. And sitting up in bed later that week, her funeral on the telly \u2014 patients and nurses all glued to it.<\/p>\n

\"FionulaFionula Linehan: ‘I\u2019d always been creative \u2014 back in the day I\u2019d dress my brother up if he was in a fancy dress competition. We often won.’ Picture: David Creedon<\/p>\n

September 1997, I had two young children under four \u2014 Kedie Blaise and Kerri Ellen \u2014 they\u2019re grown women now. I was a stay-at-home-mum then, my husband was in the navy and away a lot.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re at home being a mother, it\u2019s very fulfilling and busy, but I certainly wanted something fulfilling outside the home too, and for the longest time, since I was a teenager, martial arts was that for me.<\/p>\n

It had been like a journey, going through all the different coloured belts to get to the stage where I was at \u2014 I had two black belts. To go from second to third black belt, you have to train for three years, which I had done … but unfortunately I never got to take those grades because I\u2019d become sick in the meantime.<\/p>\n

\"FionulaFionula at home with her dogs Maisy and Pearl in Frankfield, Cork. Picture: David Creedon<\/p>\n

I had to go on medication to shrink the fibroids and that all took a toll on my system, which is why I couldn\u2019t continue with the training.<\/p>\n

So that time of the hysterectomy was like a funeral for me. Because I did go back training after the procedure but I\u2019d never have been able to get back to the standard I had been. I could continue as a hobby, and I did for a while, which was OK but I just wanted to achieve in it.<\/p>\n

It took me a while to realise. Trying to find the fulfillment that had been there all along, but not really finding it, eventually I knew it was a done deal.<\/p>\n

I remember folding up all the white suits, the belts, tracksuits, the padding, and gum-shields \u2014 folding them all up and placing them at the back of the hot-press, and knowing I wouldn\u2019t be taking them out again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FionulaFionula Linehan: ‘When you\u2019re at home being a mother, it\u2019s very fulfilling and busy, but I certainly wanted something fulfilling outside the home too.’ Picture: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

Something that had been very much part of my life that I felt fulfilled and achieving within \u2014 it was sad for me to put it all away.<\/p>\n

Afterwards I\u2019d often run into my trainer and when I\u2019d see him it was like \u2018oh, I\u2019ll go back\u2019 \u2026 the draw of it was like a drug.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t know that day I was folding the karate suits away what was in store for me, what I was going to experience and find when I went down a different avenue.<\/p>\n

Kedie started school in Maria Assumpta, Ballyphehane. They ran home-school liaison courses that parents could participate in while their children were at school: computers, gardening, baking. I tried courses as they came up. And then they were doing drama.<\/p>\n

\n I\u2019d always been creative \u2014 back in the day I\u2019d dress my brother up if he was in a fancy dress competition. We often won.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Live Mike\u00a0show on TV \u2014 Mike Murphy going to people\u2019s homes, pretending to be their long-lost cousin \u2014 that was my first time looking at the telly and thinking: how great to be an actor. It caught my imagination. The Live Mike was what flipped my mind towards anything dramatic.<\/p>\n

So I went along to the drama course. Catherine Mahon Buckley facilitated it. Catherine always said she saw something in me. It\u2019s grand to have talent, but if somebody isn\u2019t prepared to take a chance on you, give you opportunity, what good is it? That\u2019s what Catherine did for me.<\/p>\n

I loved drama before I ever went in. And then I couldn\u2019t wait to go back each week, to be given the scripts, the poems, something to explore and be creative with and use my imagination.<\/p>\n

\"FionulaFionula Linehan: ‘It\u2019s grand to have talent, but if somebody isn\u2019t prepared to take a chance on you, give you opportunity, what good is it?’ Picture: David Creedon<\/p>\n

DID you ever just know you landed in your place? I landed in my place. I was good at it, I was confident in it \u2014 I had this opportunity to play, almost like a child but in an adult form.<\/p>\n

I was greedy. I went down the academic road and became a teacher of drama. I also became an actor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What I love about acting: depending on the gig, you could be in any world you wouldn\u2019t otherwise experience. Living someone else\u2019s life, albeit on stage, and researching the character gives you a lot more empathy for somebody you might meet in real life who\u2019s in that situation.<\/p>\n

One door closing and another opening \u2014 that\u2019s been my experience. I firmly believe life gives opportunities at all different times \u2014 if you\u2019re brave enough to step out and explore you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ll find.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t ever compare the martial arts and the drama. Had I not got sick I don\u2019t think I\u2019d have deviated from martial arts but \u2026 maybe yes as I got older, because martial arts is a young person\u2019s thing.<\/p>\n

When I was younger I\u2019d gone to theatre, watched it, loved it. I never thought \u2018that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be\u2019. I feel so blessed and glad it turned out as it did.<\/p>\n