Add How to Get to Heaven from Belfast to your watchlist
Actors Caoilfhionn Dunne (Dara), Sinéad Keenan (Robyn) and Roisin Gallagher (Saoirse) on the Irish invasion, creating best-friend chemistry, and what they’d tell their 16-year-old selves...
What drew you to this show?
Roisin I heard through the grapevine that Lisa was writing something new, and I was like, “Great, how can I get a part?”
Caoilfhionn You hear the name Lisa McGee, you know it’s going to be good. Also, I was a bit tired of being paid to cry, so comedy was appealing.
Sinéad I’m lucky enough to have worked with Lisa a couple of times. You don’t say no to her. This show is bonkers — I guffawed every day.
You play old friends — how did you create that chemistry?
Sinéad The moment we met to read together, it was an instant feeling of, “This is going to work”.
Caoilfhionn The shoot was intense, so it was like a bootcamp, but for six months.
Roisin You’re buckled into a rollercoaster: you just keep going and it’s probably a bit of Stockholm Syndrome. We spent so much time together that you get that familial vibe quickly.
Can you describe your characters?
Roisin Saoirse’s this brilliant, creative whirlwind of a woman who deals with things right in front of her but forgets she has a fiancé somewhere back in London.
Sinéad Robyn’s perpetually stressed, highly strung, aggressive. But if you dig deep enough, there’s a good heart there.
Caoilfhionn Dara’s often afraid, but very loyal. She’s childlike in her optimism and her desire for goodness.
Do you identify with your characters?
Sinéad I have two boys and we’ve got a touch of hormones coming in now, which is quite something. I love them dearly, of course, but I can relate to Robyn’s stress.I think it’s nice to see a mother stressed out. You often see perfection on screen, which doesn’t exist in my life.
Roisin I did have a chuckle whenI read about Saoirse banging on about living in London, a place where they understand the difference between a flat white and a cappuccino. I managed about three and a half days in London before I came back home, but I understand her wanting to escape, reinvent herself — then realising she can’t shed where she’s from.
Caoilfhionn Dara’s a gentle soul. I’m not as soft as she is, but I do recognise that desire to please.The most interesting thing for me was squaring her religion and her sexuality. I’m not religious but it was fascinating. You don’t often see a woman who goes to mass — and not because she’s dragged there! — while grappling with her sexuality.
Roisin It sparked loads of conversations. We bonded over shared experiences of Catholicism and discovered we’d all wanted to be nuns at some point.
Sinéad I thought it looked like an easy life. No exams. I was 12, so sex wasn’t a thing at that point.
Does the theme of female friendship resonate for you?
Roisin I have a trio of friends I grew up with, and there’s something really special about these people you’ve gone through life milestones with. You can’t match that with anyone else. These are the women you love before you meet the one you’re going to marry, the children you might have. They know the bones of you — sometimes better than you know yourself — and you regress back to teenagers when you’re together.
Sinéad Those years are so formative. We’re looking at secondary schools for my eldest and you can lose yourself in worrying about how academic the school is, but actually you just want them to find friends who will carry them through life. Friends where you can tear strips off each other, but woe betide anyone else who tries to.
Caoilfhionn It’s so rare to see women of our age on adventures. Usually somebody’s got a relationship or a work problem, or they’re on the school run. Those things come into our show but at the centre it’s a caper.
If you could speak to your 16-year-old selves, would they be surprised by who you became?
Roisin This will make me bawl. There’s a line about not wanting to let that fearless girl down — the one who thought anything was possible. That resonated with me. Not wanting to let that wee girl down can be a driving force.
Caoilfhionn I don’t think I’d approach my 16-year-old self — she hated strangers. I’d probably just leave her be and let her figure it out herself!
Sinéad I’d say: you’ll make terrible choices and funny decisions, but it’ll be OK. As a therapist once said to me, “It takes you a while, but you get there in the end.”
It feels like Irish TV has really taken off recently. Do you agree?
Sinéad For such a small country, we punch above our weight. We’ve always told good stories, and the film industry exploded in the nineties with movies like My Left Foot and The Commitments. Streamers have helped Irish stories reach a global audience, and long may it continue.
Hence then, the article about the rule of three was published today ( ) and is available on Radio Times ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The rule of three )
Also on site :
- Europe’s cyber agency blames hacking gangs for massive data breach and leak
- AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers. What could go wrong?
- Miami lands blue-chip quarterback for 2027 class