Comedian, cabaret performer, Joe Dolan impersonator, funeral celebrant, writer, musician and part-time farmer Breda Larkin certainly has many strings to her bow.
Last summer, she appeared on RTÉ’s Love in the Country with Anna Geary and while romance with another farmer, Laura, wasn’t on the menu, it was nonetheless “a great experience”.
It has led to other exciting opportunities for the Galway native including a slot on an upcoming national chat show and a role on RTÉ soap Fair City.
“I didn’t find love in the country, but I did find love for the country,” says Breda, who says she was 25 when she realised she was gay. She is showing Irish Country Living around her new ‘tiny home’ on wheels or tigín as she calls it. It is located close to her parents' home, near Ballinasloe.
After a summer of festivals including Electric Picnic and All Together Now, in addition to her regular Wild Geeze cabaret show with long-time collaborator Laura LaVelle, Breda realised she didn’t need to be based in Dublin anymore.
Sporting a fetching ‘Culchie’ necklace made by Margaret O’Connor, she now feels established enough to work from the countryside where she can combine all of her diverse interests. It also means she can progress plans including a new monthly comedy night in Ballinasloe.
“I’ve always wanted to move home, and I was one foot in, one foot out for many years in Dublin. When I was home, eventually I didn’t want to go back to Dublin,” Breda explains. “I couldn’t be happier,” she says, adding that she loves having her own space while also being close to her parents Sean and Mary, nurturing her relationship with them as they get older.
Now 43, she enjoys the “space to think” in the countryside and believes it will bear fruit in terms of writing material in the future.
“It was always on the cards that I would come back. And now I feel I’m at a time in my life where I feel more settled.”
Breda is passionate about keeping rural Ireland alive and believes for some people, tiny homes could be a solution, allowing people to return to the countryside. Showing Irish Country Living the studio space and loft bedroom, she is clearly enjoying the freedom it gives her.
“You don’t need much space. People have this idea that you need all this space. I think we kind of have to change our mindset on that,” maintains Breda. “I guess it’s a type of minimal living where you pare everything back. For an artist it’s good to do that,” the comedian adds, saying she felt a bit of writer’s block in Dublin in recent times.
Farming together
Breda Larkin pictured with her father Sean who is holding a branding that is 100 years old made in his family's forge near Ballinasloe, Co Galway. \ Barry Cronin
Now, Breda has big plans to start a garden to grow some food; she’s investing in Galway sheep, a rare breed, and is hoping to plant more trees after she and her dad joined the Native Woodland Scheme back in 2017. She is of the opinion that trees are great therapy, and agroforestry, or trees and animals, is going to be “her thing” in the years ahead.
Very much into regenerative farming practices and working with nature, Breda sees the farm as a family business and is not into the idea of patrialineal agricultural succession (transfer of land from father to son), even for women.
She believes it should be a “shared thing” because to be successful, in her view, you need more people, and “intergenerational thinking” is her goal.
Her father is still doing a bit of farming, and she is helping out and learning from him. “I think my father still looks like a young lad because he has that spring in his step and a sense of purpose,” says Breda.
She is also part of an organisation called Talamh Beo, which the performer describes as “a grassroots organisation for smaller farmers” and “an environmental group to promote regenerative agriculture—looking after the soils, the whole circular system”.
You’re helping and connecting the community, which is really important
The ethos is very much about supporting local producers in rural areas, whether it is growing food, micro-dairies, or other enterprises, and she is keen that the smaller producer should be supported more by policymakers. The group also supports women in agriculture and peer-to-peer learning.
“Diversity is key in everything. Having a few strings to your bow. As an artist, you have to do that anyway; you have to be good at music, singing, etc. You always have to upskill, and I think farming is the same.
“There is a place for large-scale food production, but there is also a place for small-scale production that protects the environment and the community,” says Breda, who has done the Green Cert and is currently training to do social farming. She is looking forward to opening up the farm in Capataggle parish to groups.
Having previously worked in healthcare, she can see the benefits for all concerned: “You’re helping and connecting the community, which is really important."
Getting through grief
Comedian Breda Larkin pictured in her new 'tiny home' close to her parent's homeplace near Ballinasloe, Co Galway. \ Barry Cronin
It’s all about ways to get people back home living and working on the farm, Breda believes, and her four sisters are fully behind her efforts.
Sadly, she lost her only brother, John, in 1997. It was an accident abroad and he was just 20 years old.
“When you go through trauma at a young age like that [she was 16] sometimes it can make or break a family,” says Breda. “We ultimately have a very strong bond with each other, and that won’t go away.”
The grief connection, or “trauma bond,” is something she and Laura LaVelle talk about on stage because they also have that in common. Both understand how difficult grief is to navigate and how it affects the household. Laura was in the “height of grief” when they first met, having lost a sibling to suicide and her mother less than two years after.
“We have the same [dark] humour. The same things make us laugh,” explains Breda, who says they recorded a grief podcast Good Grief during lockdown which was received very positively. Their regular Wild Geeze podcast is more of a comedic listen.
Despite being so different, they enjoy working together and have a strong friendship. A twin [her sister is Ella], Breda loves bouncing off someone else, and “it just flows” with Laura as a popular late-night comedy duo, Wild Geeze.
The pair are looking forward to two major gigs in The Sugar Club, Dublin over St Brigid’s weekend (2 and 3 February). This show previously sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023.
The gigs are just a sample of the many things that Breda has on a very busy horizon. Having recorded a song with Wallis Bird about land, she’s wants to write a musical play about the beef industry.
Add into the mix her vision of a farm of “trees, bees and therapies.” The latter part of that sentence is the idea that one part of a farm could be developed as a health and wellbeing retreat where people can come and unwind.
This all makes for exciting times ahead, on and off stage.
See linktr.ee/thewildgeeze or thesugarclub.com for tickets to the February shows.
Comedian, cabaret performer, Joe Dolan impersonator, funeral celebrant, writer, musician and part-time farmer Breda Larkin certainly has many strings to her bow.
Last summer, she appeared on RTÉ’s Love in the Country with Anna Geary and while romance with another farmer, Laura, wasn’t on the menu, it was nonetheless “a great experience”.
It has led to other exciting opportunities for the Galway native including a slot on an upcoming national chat show and a role on RTÉ soap Fair City.
“I didn’t find love in the country, but I did find love for the country,” says Breda, who says she was 25 when she realised she was gay. She is showing Irish Country Living around her new ‘tiny home’ on wheels or tigín as she calls it. It is located close to her parents' home, near Ballinasloe.
After a summer of festivals including Electric Picnic and All Together Now, in addition to her regular Wild Geeze cabaret show with long-time collaborator Laura LaVelle, Breda realised she didn’t need to be based in Dublin anymore.
Sporting a fetching ‘Culchie’ necklace made by Margaret O’Connor, she now feels established enough to work from the countryside where she can combine all of her diverse interests. It also means she can progress plans including a new monthly comedy night in Ballinasloe.
“I’ve always wanted to move home, and I was one foot in, one foot out for many years in Dublin. When I was home, eventually I didn’t want to go back to Dublin,” Breda explains. “I couldn’t be happier,” she says, adding that she loves having her own space while also being close to her parents Sean and Mary, nurturing her relationship with them as they get older.
Now 43, she enjoys the “space to think” in the countryside and believes it will bear fruit in terms of writing material in the future.
“It was always on the cards that I would come back. And now I feel I’m at a time in my life where I feel more settled.”
Breda is passionate about keeping rural Ireland alive and believes for some people, tiny homes could be a solution, allowing people to return to the countryside. Showing Irish Country Living the studio space and loft bedroom, she is clearly enjoying the freedom it gives her.
“You don’t need much space. People have this idea that you need all this space. I think we kind of have to change our mindset on that,” maintains Breda. “I guess it’s a type of minimal living where you pare everything back. For an artist it’s good to do that,” the comedian adds, saying she felt a bit of writer’s block in Dublin in recent times.
Farming together
Breda Larkin pictured with her father Sean who is holding a branding that is 100 years old made in his family's forge near Ballinasloe, Co Galway. \ Barry Cronin
Now, Breda has big plans to start a garden to grow some food; she’s investing in Galway sheep, a rare breed, and is hoping to plant more trees after she and her dad joined the Native Woodland Scheme back in 2017. She is of the opinion that trees are great therapy, and agroforestry, or trees and animals, is going to be “her thing” in the years ahead.
Very much into regenerative farming practices and working with nature, Breda sees the farm as a family business and is not into the idea of patrialineal agricultural succession (transfer of land from father to son), even for women.
She believes it should be a “shared thing” because to be successful, in her view, you need more people, and “intergenerational thinking” is her goal.
Her father is still doing a bit of farming, and she is helping out and learning from him. “I think my father still looks like a young lad because he has that spring in his step and a sense of purpose,” says Breda.
She is also part of an organisation called Talamh Beo, which the performer describes as “a grassroots organisation for smaller farmers” and “an environmental group to promote regenerative agriculture—looking after the soils, the whole circular system”.
You’re helping and connecting the community, which is really important
The ethos is very much about supporting local producers in rural areas, whether it is growing food, micro-dairies, or other enterprises, and she is keen that the smaller producer should be supported more by policymakers. The group also supports women in agriculture and peer-to-peer learning.
“Diversity is key in everything. Having a few strings to your bow. As an artist, you have to do that anyway; you have to be good at music, singing, etc. You always have to upskill, and I think farming is the same.
“There is a place for large-scale food production, but there is also a place for small-scale production that protects the environment and the community,” says Breda, who has done the Green Cert and is currently training to do social farming. She is looking forward to opening up the farm in Capataggle parish to groups.
Having previously worked in healthcare, she can see the benefits for all concerned: “You’re helping and connecting the community, which is really important."
Getting through grief
Comedian Breda Larkin pictured in her new 'tiny home' close to her parent's homeplace near Ballinasloe, Co Galway. \ Barry Cronin
It’s all about ways to get people back home living and working on the farm, Breda believes, and her four sisters are fully behind her efforts.
Sadly, she lost her only brother, John, in 1997. It was an accident abroad and he was just 20 years old.
“When you go through trauma at a young age like that [she was 16] sometimes it can make or break a family,” says Breda. “We ultimately have a very strong bond with each other, and that won’t go away.”
The grief connection, or “trauma bond,” is something she and Laura LaVelle talk about on stage because they also have that in common. Both understand how difficult grief is to navigate and how it affects the household. Laura was in the “height of grief” when they first met, having lost a sibling to suicide and her mother less than two years after.
“We have the same [dark] humour. The same things make us laugh,” explains Breda, who says they recorded a grief podcast Good Grief during lockdown which was received very positively. Their regular Wild Geeze podcast is more of a comedic listen.
Despite being so different, they enjoy working together and have a strong friendship. A twin [her sister is Ella], Breda loves bouncing off someone else, and “it just flows” with Laura as a popular late-night comedy duo, Wild Geeze.
The pair are looking forward to two major gigs in The Sugar Club, Dublin over St Brigid’s weekend (2 and 3 February). This show previously sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023.
The gigs are just a sample of the many things that Breda has on a very busy horizon. Having recorded a song with Wallis Bird about land, she’s wants to write a musical play about the beef industry.
Add into the mix her vision of a farm of “trees, bees and therapies.” The latter part of that sentence is the idea that one part of a farm could be developed as a health and wellbeing retreat where people can come and unwind.
This all makes for exciting times ahead, on and off stage.
See linktr.ee/thewildgeeze or thesugarclub.com for tickets to the February shows.
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