And the IFTA goes to
John Connors
Relax, relax, relax, I didn't save the world
so basically despite the fact that I can't get an agent to represent me
and no film makers or casting directors
will look past the point that I'm a Traveller this is still a huge a huge moment for me
because seven and a half years ago I was sitting in my house in
Darndale in a little box bedroom
in the darkness contemplating suicide that's no mess.
What's the response that you've got been from the speech you gave?
Yeah it's been amazing
and there's been some major famous figures who've got in touch
Ken Loach followed me who's my favourite filmmaker
I got a message from Tyson Fury and Conor McGregor
Tyson Fury? What did he say?
We were just talking about Travellers and you know that we can do
anything we want to we put our mind to it.
Do you feel as I could pressure for you to represent your entire community when you come out and speak?
Well I kind of got a first wave of fame about five years ago
because of the show Love/Hate that I was in, it's a huge show in Ireland.
The other actors in it were being asked Do you want to go to Hollywood?
Or who would you like to work with? Or what type of roles would you like to tackle?
While I was being asked to account for you know Traveller rural crime
or or any stereotypical cliche.
My ethnicity was always the forefront of who I was.
No one was really interested in what I had to say about acting or anything like that.
They weren't taking me very seriously.
But I was always a politically minded person
I come from a long line of activists.
My grandmother who would be my biggest inspiration,
she was a feminist without really realising it, and illiterate.
So I have a spotlight now, and people listen to me.
I have been using it as much as I can for the last five years.
Not just about Travellers, about class issues about homelessness about mental health.
Stuff that I care about, you know?
Our government's not going to do anything about the mental health crisis,
our reptilian psychopathic government but I think
creativity can be definitely a component to heal people and I want to
dedicate this award to my father who passed away 20 years ago this year through suicide.
This is for you Daddy.
In Ireland there is a really big problem with suicide,
and it seems to be something that is even worse in the Traveller community.
Yeah it is really bad in Ireland, but obviously
with Travellers our suicide rate is seven times higher than the national rate.
11% of Travellers die through suicide.
Travellers have been dehumanized by the state.
Generations of of cultural genocide, of taking us off the road outlawing nomadism.
Blocking up all the old camping grounds,
and still being expected to assimilate.
Going through the educational system being called
knacker, pikey, I experienced that even with teachers calling me knacker which is
the worst word you can be called as a Traveller.
All the stuff really adds to the suicide rate.
For you personally what was it like when you were 20 years old?
Could you paint a bit of a picture of how different things were then,
and where you were at in your head?
Well I was basically in a box
that I couldn't get out of that was in the darkness
Because my father committed suicide it was
a thing that was normalized in my community
It was a viable option, you know what I mean?
It wasn't something that that I thought I couldn't...it was a viable option
So the moment I decided that I was gonna commit suicide
was the moment my brother reached out to me like instantaneously while I was in the room
and I made that decision that I can't go on no more, there was a knock on the door
and my brother came in and it was like a sign by the end of the
conversation with my brother he just forced me to change my thinking and we Googled
"Acting Classes Dublin" and the Abbey came up. So I rang them up.
There was this course, Advanced Scene Study, but it was too advanced for me
obviously, they reckoned you needed to be a professional actor.
I assured the teacher that I could do it and I don't know where I was getting the confidence from.
I kind of just didn't give a fuck and there's this thing about confidence and not giving a fuck.
And it's very important to not give a fuck sometimes in life I think..
Well all the time, really, to be honest.
So I went in and everybody explained their backgrounds in acting and
that have been acting and done three years in this school and have a degree and a masters.
And and I was listening to all this and I was like oh shit, I'm fucked there.
I'm gonna be out of my depth. I decided in my head right there and then I was gonna
leave the class the first opportunity and before I could get the chance, they set up an improv game
where it was about a shopkeeper and a customer
and this lad who came in the door who was a customer - let's just say would have been from very
well-to-do background an affluent background from Dublin and the shopkeeper
was a Brazilian man who was a man of colour. And I watched this the scene unfold,
and the Dublin lad was like "oh I'd like to buy some protein, and this flavour, vanilla flavour",
so on and so forth.
But he ended up patronizing this Brazilian man and I thought there were sort
of racial undertones to the scene.
I just filled with rage looking at this.
I fantasized about grabbing the Dublin guy and throwing him out the second floor building.
So when they asked for a volunteer, and when the Dublin lad began the shopkeeper I said me
So my improv was about I ran through the door to rob the place,
And I slapped actor around and choked him a bit and took his shoes off.
The teacher intervened, a little bit probably too late
You have to leave the classroom so I left the classroom
but then I left the floor and I kept walking down.
The teacher followed me all the way down.
She was like "come back, come back John", and I eventually stopped and she said
"Look that was intense. You have something but let's see if we just harness it,
come back up, it's OK, no one's dead".
So I went home that night
and my mother just felt my energy immediately, she was like "what's up with you?"
I told her I'd done an acting class but don't tell anybody
because I was embarrassed maybe if some of my family know.
She said please, just keep doing it, because she'd seen the difference with me
immediately and that's what creativity does to you.
There's a huge problem with the government not put anything into arts
for working-class people.
If they spend any money it's in sports or a community hall for boxing or football
because I thought working-class people can be so, they think.
Meanwhile all the stories that they're telling on stage or on film it's about working-class people
told by middle and upper-class people.
It's really interesting because I feel like the debate in the UK is much more focused on race
so it's really interesting to be talking about the class element of that because
that is really important and as you say that's something that you can identify very easily.
In Ireland they do anything we can to not talk about class that's
always the underlying issue always is there now this new form of identity politics
with people using these different groups to latch onto.
Like this whole thing of "straight white male". That would definitely apply in America.
You can definitely have an advantage for being white in America. I'm a straight
white male if you want to call me that I hate labels but suppose that's
what I am and I don't identify with being either but I come from the most
oppressed and discriminated group in Ireland that's not taking anything away from racism
not at all, or discrimination sure I'm coming from a group that are discriminated against
but it's definitely something that we need to start talking about.
You've done this speech but you existed before the speech you were doing lots of acting before.
What do you want to do next?
I've got one or two little things coming up.
I'm writing.
I've directed documentary but I've never directed drama, so I'm going to direct.
There's been films made about Travellers.
They've all been inaccurate you know and I finally want to make the film about
Travellers of this country made by a Traveller. If I can get funding for that
Who knows? I'll make it somehow anyway. I think once you decide to do it you decide to do it
and you make people believe you're gonna do it then it'll happen.