{"id":48452,"date":"2025-07-08T10:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48452\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:35:13","slug":"when-people-see-my-name-they-expect-a-granny-from-tipperary-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48452\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When people see my name, they expect a granny from Tipperary\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen people see the name Brigid Leahy, they expect to see a granny from Tipperary,\u201d laughs the Dublin-based actor and writer (33) from California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last person they\u2019re expecting is an Asian-American woman,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Leahy is Vietnamese-Irish-American, to be exact, with a father whose family left Cork<\/a> in 1860 and a mother who left her own native country following the Vietnam War<\/a> at the age of 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time I got a taxi [in Dublin], and the taxi driver kept looking at me in the rear-view mirror and was like, so are you Brigid Leahy\u2019s carer or, like, is your name Brigid Leahy? <\/p>\n

\u201cOr I picked up a prescription once, and they were like, is this for your granny? Are you Brigid?\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year was busy for Brigids, with wide-ranging celebrations for the 1,500th anniversary of St Brigid\u2019s death, which included the Brigid Project \u2013 a collection of portraits by Deirdre Brennan, which Leahy was photographed for \u2013 and the Brigid Festival on the saint\u2019s feast day<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"AA portrait of Brigid Leahy taken as part of the Brigid Project. Photograph: Deirdre Brennan <\/p>\n

Leahy got married two years ago, to a man from Dublin, at a Kildare ceremony attended by many of her US-based friends and relatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what\u2019s really funny is my sister, Fiona, she followed me out here to do a working holiday and then she met her husband, so she lives here as well. She married a man from Wexford,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the four of us are all best friends; we went on a joint honeymoon together last year to Japan. So having Fiona here is great, and we have that shared experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, of course, my dad is delighted to have two Irish sons-in-law.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although Leahy\u2019s father and grandfather had Irish passports and were registered on the foreign birth registry, Leahy herself was not, and so she went through the process of becoming a naturalised Irish citizen. She received her citizenship in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like this circuitous route that I had to take to reclaim my own roots,\u201d Leahy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family, we have such a strong Irish tradition that we\u2019ve carried for generations \u2013 like all my cousins are Aidan, Caitlin, Colin, and my dad\u2019s Patrick, my sister is Fiona. And so, it was a really powerful moment to say I\u2019m actually Irish now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecoming naturalised was also very powerful because my mom is a naturalised citizen of the United States. [She] left Vietnam as a refugee [\u2026] and she was in a refugee camp in Thailand before being sponsored to come to the US by a convent in Kentucky. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I thought about my mother and her losing her statehood \u2013 she was a stateless person \u2013 and becoming naturalised, and I have this amazing privilege to be a dual citizen, and to have that belonging to two nations, which I think is really powerful and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I want to work with people who are not looking for fame or, you know, financial gain. They really want to change the landscape and tell a really good story<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Having graduated with a degree in history from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Leahy knew she wanted to continue her studies abroad, and says moving to Ireland in 2014 \u201cwas a no-brainer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been to Ireland before and had absolutely fallen in love with the country. And my family, they\u2019ve come here so often over the years just for holidays, and they had told me how magical it was,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Leahy pursued a Master\u2019s degree in public history and cultural heritage at Trinity College Dublin, for which she focused her research on the politics of commemorative practices for Vietnamese diasporic groups, and how they commemorate the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve become really close with the Vietnamese community here \u2013 and my friend Kim, she owns one of the first Vietnamese restaurants in Ireland, Pho Kim on Parnell Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so that was really special to take both of my identities and be able to use them in my academic work,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As well as history, acting had always been a passion of Leahy\u2019s and she had taken part in student theatre productions at UCLA. It didn\u2019t take her long to find acting opportunities in Dublin when she arrived.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A Breton in Ireland: \u2018My wife calls me a culchie, which I completely embrace\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI got off the plane and I saw auditions for a musical and I was like, \u2018I\u2019ll do that\u2019, and I got cast, so I was immediately part of the arts community here, which was fantastic, especially coming from another country. And I\u2019ve always found a home with artists here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As well as work on the stage, Leahy has acted in several productions here, including the film Disenchanted<\/a>, starring Amy Adams, which was filmed in Wicklow, and Irish TV drama Smother<\/a>, filmed in Lahinch, Co Clare. Leahy debuted her Irish accent while filming Smother, prompting the director to think she grew up here, which, she says, was \u201cthe best compliment anyone\u2019s ever given me\u201d.<\/p>\n

People often ask Leahy why she left the home of Hollywood to pursue an acting career in Ireland, and to that she says: \u201cImmediately, Ireland felt like the landscape I needed to make art. Here, art is less commercial, and you can really feel the desire for collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Hollywood, now, they\u2019re just churning out franchise after franchise after franchise and Ireland still feels like a place where we protect art and authentic stories. And there\u2019s a reason why Ireland, for such a small country, has such [an] amazing cultural and artistic output \u2013 it\u2019s because it\u2019s something that we value here as a people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really felt that when I came here that this is the type of art I want to make. I want to work with people who are not looking for fame or, you know, financial gain. They really want to change the landscape and tell a really good story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrigidBrigid Leahy (left) with the cast of A Misanthrope <\/p>\n

Leahy\u2019s acting career has come full circle as she is returning to the Smock Alley stage, the venue of her first performance on Irish soil, to perform in A Misanthrope by Sugarglass, starting on July 17th. The play is described as an Irish reworking of Moli\u00e8re\u2019s play, set in a make-believe tech company at Dublin\u2019s Silicon Docks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to have a piece by Moli\u00e8re adapted to fit something that\u2019s so relevant today, and it\u2019s a really fun setting to be working in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When the acting world went quiet during the Covid pandemic, Leahy decided to turn her hand to writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was accepted into this artist collective called the West Studio Group \u2013 it\u2019s an initiative by the Dublin Fringe Festival for black and global majority artists \u2013 and from that, I\u2019ve met so many amazing artists and have been able to collaborate with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually have my first play on at the Fringe this year. It\u2019s called The Chalice and it\u2019s going to be on in the New Theatre in September.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoodGood Chips, written by Nell Hensey and Brigid Leahy <\/p>\n

Leahy also co-wrote a short film called Good Chips \u2013 in which a family of Vietnamese immigrants struggle to keep their takeaway business afloat in Dublin of 1989 \u2013 which won the Writers Guild of Ireland Zebbie award for best short film script in 2024. Leahy and her collaborator have since been granted funding to develop it into a feature film.<\/p>\n

Leahy has been grateful to benefit from government supports for the arts, she says. \u201cIn the US, there aren\u2019t very many public supports of arts, it\u2019s all private. [Whereas, in Ireland] I\u2019ve been granted two theatre project awards to write two plays and Screen Ireland has been so supportive of a couple of projects that I\u2019ve worked on. So, you know, Ireland has the institutions to support emerging artists and that feels so out of reach in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like art is a bit more democratised here.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Misanthrope is at Smock Alley Theatre<\/a> from July 17th to August 2nd, and The Chalice will be at the Dublin Fringe Festival<\/a> in September<\/p>\n

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com<\/a> <\/b>or tweet @newtotheparish<\/a><\/p>\n