Actor, writer, stand-up comedian, and father of four, Paddy McDonnell, is thriving in the creative arts.<\/p>\n
This summer alone, he is performing at the Paddy Power comedy festival in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens, before playing the comedy stage at Electric Picnic, all while simultaneously touring two shows (Gout’s Out, Paddy Powerful).<\/p>\n
Despite this success, when he looks back to his childhood in West Belfast, he insists that a creative career was never on the cards.<\/p>\n
“I always thought I was going to be a footballer, or something like that,” Paddy says, speaking over Zoom.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know that I loved the arts! Where I grew up, you didn’t do plays or get involved with drama because it was a rough area, and you would have got bullied for it.”<\/p>\n
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Although it came with a risk of slagging, McDonagh jumped on stage as soon as opportunity came knocking.<\/p>\n
In 1995, the young teenager became one of the first boys to attend a previously all-girls school, one that did musicals.<\/p>\n
“I was the first boy to go to that school, and the done Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” he explains. “I done that, and on the last night, my friends were all in the second row. They never said anything about it! They just came and enjoyed the show.”<\/p>\n
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Although he loved entertaining, McDonnell never saw it as a way to make a living. So, when a bad knee put a stop to his football aspirations, he turned to construction.<\/p>\n
“My dad worked in construction, so he made you work every holiday you were off so that you weren’t running through the streets of Belfast,” he laughs.<\/p>\n
“I know now it wasn’t a forced labour thing,” he adds, joking, “it was more about keeping me off the streets because of where we grew up and the way it was.”<\/p>\n
Working in construction while living in America after school, and eventually bringing his skills back home, Paddy quickly found himself working in carpentry, even starting his own joinery company.<\/p>\n
Sadly, it was during this time that tragedy struck.<\/p>\n
In 2007, while working part-time as a pub doorman, McDonnell was involved in an altercation that led him to lose part of his finger when it was bitten off during a violent altercation.<\/p>\n
The incident left him in a dark place, with the Belfast man struggling with his mental health during the resulting court case.<\/p>\n
As fate would have it, this dark time would inadvertently lead him to the business of making people laugh.<\/p>\n
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“My wife put me up for an open mic comedy thing,” he explains, “just to try and keep my mind off the first day in court.”<\/p>\n
“I got up on stage, and once I done that, I knew it was what I needed to do – even if it was just as a hobby – for the rest of my life.”<\/p>\n
“I think, in her head, she sort of knew I was destined for something on the stage or entertaining or standing in front of a crowd,” he muses. “But I think, at the time, she only really done it to take my mind off things – not thinking it would have went down the line of a career. It was more to just help my mental health.”<\/p>\n
A few months in, and having gained a name for himself in comedy clubs across the country, McDonnell got the chance to open for comedian Des Bishop at F\u00e9ile an Phobail, one of Ireland’s biggest community arts festivals.<\/p>\n
Standing in front of 1,000 people, the Belfast man realised there was no turning back: “That night, I turned around and said to the festival director, and said, ‘I want to headline this’.”<\/p>\n
“It didn’t go smooth the whole way,” he says of the creative career. “It’s had its ups and its downs. It was actually COVID that changed the whole dynamic of this being a career for me. People sitting in their houses meant that videos that had 300 hits, over-night some of them went to a million.”<\/p>\n
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During the pandemic, when live gigs were off the table, the father of four returned to his joinery days, working on some of the many movie sets that had popped up in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Once the restrictions began to ease, though, Paddy had a decision to make: stick with the steady, well-paid work of building sets, or take a gamble on comedy.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the answer was simple.<\/p>\n
Throwing himself into stand-up, McDonnell became a foundational player in Northern Ireland’s growing comedy scene, alongside creatives like Shane Todd, William Thompson, Dave Elliot, Micky Bartlett, Emer Maguire, Lianne McCooey, and Diona Doherty.<\/p>\n
“We created a wee scene,” he says, proudly. “We started running gigs ourselves in places like Daly’s in Omagh, of all places. It became this hub of comedy.”<\/p>\n
“Omagh is a great example of… there was a tragedy in that town, and a lot of the people who were victims would be regulars in the comedy club. That, to me, is another thing that shows: laughter is what people need. We need a break from the norms of life.”<\/p>\n
“We set that scene up, and we were all slightly different, and we all complemented each other. We created a scene that nobody else has.”<\/p>\n
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Fast forward to 2026, and the comedian’s gamble has clearly paid off.<\/p>\n
Having just finished touring his show, Gout’s Out, across the UK, he now has plans to tour it around the Republic of Ireland. Simultaneously, this September, he plans to tour his new show, Paddy Powerful, around the border.<\/p>\n
“People can go and see me twice because it’s two completely different shows,” he promises. “They’re two cracking shows, and I’m really looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n
“In between that, I’ll be writing plays and doing acting,” he continues. “It just works for me. I have to be chaos, and doing loads of different shows! To me, it’s just normal.”<\/p>\n
As for the Paddy Power Comedy Festival? That feels like a walk in the park – or should we say gardens?<\/p>\n
“I’m buzzing for it, it feels like a holiday,” he smiles. “You can sit back stage on the sofas and chill, and you can go and watch acts, which is something we don’t always get to do [as comedians]. At the end of the day, we’re comedy lovers ourselves.”<\/p>\n