While the Fermanagh duo of Adrian Dunbar and Nigel Boyle were grabbing the major news headlines for playing their role in BBC One’s hit show ‘Line of Duty’, perhaps the most surprising moment for Fermanagh people was to see the former Erne attacking ace Tomás Corrigan patrol the
corridors of Hillside Lane Prison as he led suspected criminal Darren Hunter to the cells.
For many seasons, Tomás has played a vital role for Fermanagh and just last season he finished as the top scorer in the Ulster Championship for the Erne county.
Unbeknownst to many, ever since his school days at St Michael’s College, Tomás has been harbouring a love for acting and some time away from the football pitch during the Covid-19 lockdown left Tomás thinking of life outside of the game.
When he was offered the opportunity to appear in ‘Line of Duty’, Tomás admits that it was too big of an opportunity to turn down.
“At that time, there was a pause on the football and it gave you a chance to take a deep breath and see what else was going on. Acting was something that I did in school and I really like challenging myself and I like having things to do, so I thought that whenever football is finished I’d like to get into a bit of acting and join like a theatre group or something wherever I am and do some acting.”
“I had a chance to film for one day for ‘Line of Duty’ so it lucky. We were filming it during the training for the championship last year but it was on a Monday so we weren’t training that day and it worked out perfectly.”
“The stars aligned that I had a bit of spare time to do it and it was only over the course of a day and it wasn’t too strenuous or there wasn’t too much preparation. I wanted to get a flavour of that world so doing the extras thing was just a brief glimpse into what goes on.”
Aside from his passion for acting, Tomás has also forged a very good career in law and at present he is in the process of moving jobs to link up with the highly regarded law firm Mason Hayes & Curran in Dublin.
At the end of the Ulster Championship campaign last season, Tomás opted to take some time away from the inter-county setup and while he very much enjoyed his time with Fermanagh, he is looking forward to pursuing some other goals and avenues in the next few months.
“I want to keep playing football for Kinawley for the next number of years. For a while I tried to do everything and when you are trying to do that, you tend to not be able to do anything to the fullest of your ability. You end up giving things only sixty or seventy percent so I sort of realized that a couple of years ago you have to pick and choose what to do. Whenever the football is finished I will definitely try and get into some theatre groups in Dublin and do a small bit of acting but I don’t see myself being in Hollywood or on screens that much! I would like to do some of the theatre acting and that will be enough for me.”
“At the minute I am enjoying the free time to plan my weekends and enjoy time with my friends that I sort of felt that I was missing out on when I was playing for Fermanagh. While I loved playing for Fermanagh, you have to sacrifice a lot when you are playing inter-county football. I
kind of got tired of that. Maybe I will get the hunger back for next year but at the minute I am happy with the decision to take a year out this year.”
When asked if he had gotten the bug for the camera after his latest cameo appearance, Tomás admits that he certainly won’t be ruling anything out if the right opportunity was to come his way in the near future.
“Acting is a lot more than interesting than being a solicitor and if the right role was to come along I would definitely take it. Acting is a tough gig and it is not all smooth sailing. There is a lot of actors who are without work and waiting on their big break so I will be joining the back of the queue.”
“I might just stick at the law and keep at it for a while.”, he chuckled.
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