{"id":275158,"date":"2026-02-01T09:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T09:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275158\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T09:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T09:33:08","slug":"tom-vaughan-lawlor-admits-the-time-was-right-to-give-ireland-a-break-from-nidge-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275158\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Vaughan-Lawlor admits the time was right to give Ireland a break from Nidge \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the end of Love\/Hate, Tom Vaughan\u2011Lawlor<\/a> knew things were getting out of hand. \u201cI was on the front cover of The Irish Times twice in one week,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cMaybe it was time to give the Irish people a break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan\u2011Lawlor was a character actor who had worked largely in theatre when he was cast in the RT\u00c9<\/a> crime drama as the shaven\u2011headed scallywag Nidge. Something about the character \u2013 this artful dodger in a tracksuit and chunky runners \u2013 clicked with audiences. His death in the Love\/Hate finale, in November 2014, made national news. One tabloid splashed him on the front with the headline \u201cRIP Nidge\u201d.<\/p>\n

Twelve years on, the softly spoken Dubliner still struggles to process the scale his fame reached. Love\/Hate mania was very real \u2013 and people still shout \u201cHowya, Nidge!\u201d at Vaughan\u2011Lawlor when he\u2019s out in public. He describes the attention as a blessing but admits that he did sense it was getting out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember there was one time . . . there were four images . . . they were cartoons. There was me in Love\/Hate. There was Nidge reading the news. There was me as Nidge doing [a home-improvement show]. There was me as Nidge doing . . . like, I don\u2019t know, the Toy Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t worked much with RT\u00c9 since. But now he\u2019s back with his first leading role for the national broadcaster for more than a decade, playing a bumbling priest in the new dark comedy These Sacred Vows.<\/p>\n

The show, which is written and directed by John Butler, is a sort of bargain\u2011holiday Irish take on The White Lotus<\/a>, in which a group of despicable south Dubliners gather at a holiday villa in Tenerife for a wedding and are all sorts of unpleasant with one another until the discovery of a body plunges the vacation into crisis. <\/p>\n

In the middle of this hellscape of horseplay is Vaughan\u2011Lawlor\u2019s Fr Vincent, an old\u2011school priest who is flown in to preside over the nuptials and ends up aghast at the unfolding Bacchanalia.<\/p>\n

Vaughan\u2011Lawlor has played all sorts in his career. He was a sidekick to the mega-baddie Thanos in Marvel\u2019s Avengers and a minor nobleman in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms<\/a>, HBO\u2019s recent Game of Thrones spin\u2011off. But portraying a priest brought it all back home for the Dubliner, who lives in Kent in southeast England with his wife, the actor Claire Cox.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Cheerier than Game of Thrones and brimming with Irish talentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cMy uncle\u2019s a priest. I love going to Mass. I quite enjoyed going to confession as a kid,\u201d he says. \u201cYou had to think of three sins \u2013 two small ones and a big one. Just to make it look good. They were never real. All the big ones you kept to yourself. I always used confession to get out of class. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s still a thing. I don\u2019t know if they even still do confession.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Vaughan-Lawlor as Fr Vincent in These Sacred Vows, written by John Butler <\/p>\n

These Sacred Vows, which also stars Adam John Richardson<\/a>, Justine Mitchell, Shane Daniel Byrne<\/a> and Mark O\u2019Halloran<\/a>, among others, is likely to divide viewers: comedy is always subjective and not everyone will connect with the acidic script and cast of thoroughly disagreeable protagonists. But whatever about the sheer nastiness of the characters or the debt the series does or does not owe to The White Lotus, Vaughan\u2011Lawlor makes for an impressive padre.<\/p>\n

His performance perfectly captures the nervous energy of the modern priest, terrified of being seen to judge anyone yet haunted by the nagging sense that maybe he should be doing exactly that. He wants to be liked, but his thoughts are constantly interrupted by the sound of God tutting in the background.<\/p>\n

The role is certainly a big switch\u2011up for the actor, who came to the production straight from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, in which he plays a steward overseeing a jousting tournament. It was a jarring contrast: one moment he was tramping around muddy Westeros, the next he was jumping into a pool off the coast of Africa. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a sign of Vaughan\u2011Lawlor\u2019s versatility: his ability to switch from a big\u2011budget HBO series to a more modest RT\u00c9 drama and look completely comfortable in both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved fantasy growing up, so getting to do real fantasy on screen is so much fun,\u201d he says of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. But he had just as much fun on These Secret Vows \u2013 and says the quality of the script was up there with that of the HBO series. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the writing is that good, like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms with Ira Parker, or John Butler on this show . . . the writing is so elegant, so detailed . . . It\u2019s your job to come up to the mark. Sometimes it\u2019s the other way around, where the writing is a bit spare. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor John, it\u2019s so classy. I was offered [another] job \u2013 and then my agent sent me this script and after three pages I called him and said, \u2018I\u2019m doing this\u2019. Because it\u2019s just so brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan\u2011Lawlor was born in Dundrum in 1977. His father, Tom snr, is also an actor. (He played a priest in Love\/Hate.) After graduating from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in drama studies, Vaughan-Lawlor jnr went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he was the first Irish actor to receive the Laurence Olivier bursary.<\/p>\n

He returns to RT\u00c9 at a time when Irish actors bask in global acclaim. This year sees Jessie Buckley<\/a> at the Oscars, where she is up for best actress for her role in Hamnet. Alison Oliver<\/a> stars in Emerald Fennell\u2019s Wuthering Heights and Barry Keoghan<\/a> plays Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes\u2019 four-part Beatles biopic.<\/p>\n

These are halcyon days, Vaughan\u2011Lawlor agrees, but he says it\u2019s important to acknowledge the contribution of previous generations of Irish actors, who trod the boards in Ireland and did not receive the international exposure of today\u2019s young stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cNiall Buggy<\/a> … Marie Mullen<\/a>, Se\u00e1n McGinley<\/a> \u2026 There are loads. I was on a set once and I remember a [third assistant director] shouting at an 80\u2011year\u2011old actor. I was, like, \u2018That man gave his f***ing life to theatre in this county. Don\u2019t shout at him.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about a bit of respect for older actors. They don\u2019t fly to London; they don\u2019t fly to LA. But they\u2019ve given their lives to theatre and the arts. You see them growing up and they\u2019re as good as anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The portrayal of priests on screen has changed radically over the decades. They were traditionally depicted as forbidding and judgmental \u2013 God\u2019s stern shepherds sent to guide the flock by any means necessary. Later, with Father Ted<\/a>, they were played for comic relief. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ardal O\u2019Hanlon on Father Ted at 30: \u2018I thought it was a sh*t idea. Who was going to want to watch a sitcom about priests?\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fr Vincent is somewhere in the middle. Vaughan-Lawlor pitches him as a hangdog Everyman of the cloth, desperately trying to keep it together while his holiday companions take drugs and make a disgrace of themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s funny about priests and how priests are written. Maybe we\u2019re coming out with a different kind of depiction of priests in Ireland. [Vincent] is a good man who feels like his time is up, and he\u2019s trying to figure out how to be useful, where his identity lies. He\u2019s flawed, he\u2019s full of doubt . . . <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, as we find out, things pick up at the end of the first episode and [he] just starts to kind of unravel again. To get a character arc like that in six episodes is rare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan-Lawlor didn\u2019t intend to be absent from RT\u00c9 for so long. As much as he understood that the cult of Nidge meant he risked overexposure, he wasn\u2019t avoiding Irish television. He has nothing but positive memories of Love\/Hate. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things were very intense, it was very intense. I cannot remember a single interaction I have ever had that hasn\u2019t been . . . they\u2019ve always been positive. It\u2019s a total blessing . . . I\u2019m fortunate and I feel lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nidge,Nidge, played by Tom Vaughan Lawlor <\/p>\n

There are often rumours of a Love\/Hate revival and Vaughan-Lawlor doesn\u2019t rule out a return. When it comes to Nidge, never say never.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing time, an amazing experience. You hope to move on as much as you can. But the actor\u2019s life is, like, \u2018Who knows?\u2019. Maybe I\u2019ll do pantomime in a few years\u2019 time \u2013 the Love\/Hate panto. \u2018He told us he\u2019d never come back\u2019. I\u2019m broke!\u201d<\/p>\n

These Sacred Vows is on RT\u00c9 One at 9.30pm on Sundays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the end of Love\/Hate, Tom Vaughan\u2011Lawlor knew things were getting out of hand. \u201cI was on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[133999,28832,49654,93,61,60,312,134003,134001,134002,6085,134004,134000,125732],"class_list":{"0":"post-275158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adam-john-richardson","9":"tag-alison-oliver","10":"tag-barry-keoghan","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-jessie-buckley","15":"tag-marie-mullen","16":"tag-mark-o-halloran","17":"tag-niall-buggy","18":"tag-rte","19":"tag-sean-mcginley","20":"tag-shane-daniel-byrne","21":"tag-tom-vaughan-lawlor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}