Paul Howard: My house is in Wicklow. Ross O'Carroll-Kelly would hate it

Back to Yours: Róisín Ingle chats to journalist, author and comedy writer Paul Howard about his Star Wars room and watching soccer in the bath

Paul Howard at home in Avoca, Co Wicklow. File photograph: Eric Luke
Paul Howard at home in Avoca, Co Wicklow. File photograph: Eric Luke

"I stayed at home for a long, long time. I think I was about 25 or 26," says Ross O'Carroll-Kelly creator Paul Howard about his reluctance to leave his parents' home.

“But then I moved out and lived in a little place on Stradbrook Road… and I remember the day I moved in just thinking, like at 26 years of age, just thinking, ‘Oh Jesus, I want to move back home’,” the journalist, author and comedy writer tells Róisín Ingle, in the latest episode of a new podcast by The Irish Times, Back to Yours.

Paul Howard’s Star Wars room, at his home in Avoca, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Jennifer Ryan
Paul Howard’s Star Wars room, at his home in Avoca, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Jennifer Ryan

In the podcast, Róisín talks to well-known people about their houses, snoops in their drawers and finds out all about the homes they’ve lived in throughout their lives.

In this episode, Paul speaks to Róisín about the craic of his childhood in Cromlech Fields in Dublin's Ballybrack, and why watching football in the bath is the definition of relaxation. He also shows her his Star Wars room.

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Paul Howard’s home office. Photograph: Jennifer Ryan
Paul Howard’s home office. Photograph: Jennifer Ryan

They talk about why home is wherever his wife Mary and their Basset Hound Humphrey are, the anti-English sentiment in 1970s Ireland when he moved here as a child from England – "I was just fighting every day" – and why Ross O'Carroll-Kelly would hate his house in Wicklow.

In the first season of Back to Yours, Róisín speaks to Amy Huberman, Dermot Bannon and Rose McGowan, among others.

Listen to Back to Yours wherever you get your podcasts.

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Jennifer Ryan

Jennifer Ryan is a former audio producer at The Irish Times