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and now she resides in sunny L.A.“California just makes sense forme. I’m very much into yoga andhealthy vegetarian eating andthat’s so big there that there aremany like-minded people. Theweather is amazing and there isso much outdoor stuff to do. I’llbe teaching a yoga Class in Grif-fith Park and perhaps one on thebeach also,” she says of her life inLos Angeles.In 2015, Linda travelled to Ker-

ala in South India, where shestudied to become a yoga instruc-tor and she now runs a yoga andhealthy lifestyle blog called ‘YogaVeggie Glow’, which can befound on Facebook. “I createdthe blog to share some of thehealthy lifestyle and wisdom I’velearnt along the way. A few smallhealthy changes can change aperson’s life. I share little tips and

simple meal plans on my Face-book blog.”The atmosphere in LA, accord-

ing to Linda is “so chilled”, and a“real hub for creatives” like her.She feels she fits in with thehealthy, active lifestyle there andfeels very lucky to experience lifein America and to have thechance to travel. “Maybe if my lifehad been different I would havetravelled more when I wasyounger. I didn’t, but I am cer-tainly doing that now. I’ve trav-elled all over the world in thepast few years,” she says. Milan,Florence, Pamplona and Torontoare just a handful of places she’svisited. “I spent six weeks walkingacross Spain on the Camino DeSantiago. I walked over 800km inone go with a backpack on myback. That experience gave mesuch courage. I was so frightened

inda Breathnach, one ofGalway’s brightest filmstars, first appeared on the

small screen as Róisede Burca on the pop-ular TG4 soap Ros na

Rún and has starred in numerousother Irish-language shows since.Ros na Rún was a show whereshe made her mark and learntthe ropes of the television actingworld. Now she’s moving on tobigger and better things in Holly-wood where she hopes to fur-ther her career in acting inaddition to teaching yoga, whilealso continuing her work in TVshows closer to home.Linda inherited her American

citizenship from her mother wholived in New York for nearly 20years. The popular Ros na Rúnactress had always planned onspending some time in America

LAWoman

Linda Bhreathnach first cameto puBLic attention when shestarred as róise in ros na rún.foLLowing a series of success-fuL roLes, she is now Living inL.a where she is comBining heracting career with yoga, sheteLLs Jessica thompson.

March 2015 GALWAYnow | 3

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going out there on my own, but Ithink doing that has given me thecourage to pursue further adven-tures and that has led me to Cali-fornia.”No matter where she goes,

Linda never forgets her Galwayroots. The Rosmuc native wonMiss Galway in 2007 and was arunner up in the Miss Irelandcontest, but also started her act-ing career in Galway. Galway’ssuccess in winning the UNESCO‘City of Film’ title in December issomething that Linda feels willonly benefit the movie industryin the west. “[This title] reallymakes us a player in the interna-tional field of filmmaking. Galwayhas fantastic infrastructure and askilled workforce. It’s an idealplace for filmmakers to shoot.Everything they need is in Galway– not to mention the stunningand varied scenery.”Linda has been acting since she

finished school at the age of 17,but had a strong interest in pur-suing an acting career from theyoung age of five, when shestaged shows with her sisters intheir family home, cordially invit-ing their parents to the ‘Perfor-mance in the sitting room at 3pm– free entry’.“My parents were always very

kind and encouraging. So I sup-pose this nurtured my aspirationsand so I never really doubted I’dpursue it as a career.” But she didhave one or two other dreams forher future too. “There were defi-nitely two other moments in mychildhood when I consideredbeing a baker so that I couldmake my own delicious treatsevery day. I also considered beinga fire woman as the trucks werecool. In the end I opted for theacting… I figured I’d have a tasteof more worlds this way.”Since she began her acting ca-

reer as a teenager, Linda hasplayed various roles, includingRóise de Búrca in Ros na Rún,and the more recent role of SarahO’Regan in Corp Agus Anam. Notmany can say they walked intotheir dream career straight fromschool, but Linda was thruststraight into the working worldwhen she took on the role ofRóise. “It was really weird. Ididn’t really realise I was a childliving in an adult world. I wasn’treally prepared. I wanted to actand I wanted to be a grown-up,but really I was just a teenager. Iremember never being able to re-late to all the conversations thatwould happen at work. This used

to make me feel somewhatinept,” she says of her early act-ing days. Though she loved beingan actress, she remembers feel-ing sad that she never had thetypical college experience thather peers enjoyed. But in manyways, she felt she had that withher work. “The TG4 show Seachtwas like going to college. Therewere a load of us living togetherin this big old house in Belfast,acting together every day and so-cialising together at the week-ends,” she said, remembering herrole as Eithne in the Irish lan-guage show.Linda has done a lot of work

with the Irish language, with hermost recent show Corp AgusAnam receiving high praise whenseries two aired in 2014. The sec-ond series of the IFTA award-win-ning show was also nominatedfor a Prix Europa and received“fantastic reviews”, which Lindasays is extremely encouraging.And now there’s talk of a third se-ries. “We couldn’t have hoped for

a better reaction [to series two].All the national newspapers gaveit fantastic reviews. The writerand director, Darach Mac ConIomaire and producer, PaddyHayes, are such a magical team.They have such a clear vision andwork so well together.”“There is talk of a third series,

which would be fantastic. It’s get-ting better every year. It’s excitingto see Irish drama go in this direc-tion. We’re getting better at creat-ing our own niche I think. CorpAgus Anam is being classed asCeltic Noir and being compared toshows such as The Bridge andLove/Hate. It really is holding itsown out there in the world of big,bad, beautiful TV drama.”The character of Sarah is one

that is close to Linda’s heart asit’s her most recent role. “CorpAgus Anam has special meaningfor me as I think it’s such an im-portant form of storytelling.Darach [the writer and director]bases all his stories on real-lifeevents, so I feel it gives stories a

“Maybeifmy lifehad beendifferentI wouldhavetravelledmorewhen Iwasyounger.I didn’t,but I amcertainlydoingthat now.”

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voice they might not have other-wise had.”“Of course my first role in tele-

vision was so exciting – playingRóise in Ros na Rún. All I everwanted was to be a professionalactress, so when I was cast in thatat 17 it was a real dream cometrue,” Linda says, reminiscing onthe start of her career.“Seacht was wonderful as well. I

made some of my best friends onthat show, not to mention on Rosna Rún. But to be honest, I couldn’tchoose just one character as myfavourite. I’d feel I was somehowslighting my other characters.”But she feels she can really re-

late to Eithne in Seacht. Eithne isa young college student, andwhile working on the show, Lindawas also studying hard for herArts degree in NUI Galway – seiz-ing the opportunity to go to col-lege after all. Fiona, the daughterof a publican who was also apolitician in The Running Matewas another character she couldrelate to, as this was who she wasin real life. But after somethought, she says she can relateto all of her characters – someperhaps a little more than others.“Sometimes I wished my char-

acters reacted in different ways. Iwanted them to be stronger. I’dlove to see more shows wherewomen have more pivotal rolesand aren’t a varying degree of adamsel in distress,” she says. Theshow Girls by Lena Dunham isone she enjoys and refers to as“refreshing” with its strong fe-male characters.

One thing that all of Linda’scharacters have in common is theuse of the Irish language. ToLinda, the Irish language is partof who we are as people. “Theremnants and nuances of it arestill to be heard in how we Irishpeople speak English… how wephrase things like ‘I’m after beingto the shop’ for instance. ‘I’mafter’ isn’t really English. It’s IrishEnglish. It’s a direct translationfrom the Irish language. This isdotted all through how wespeak,” says Linda, who was anofficial spokesperson for ‘Seach-tain na Gaeilge’, a nationwidecampaign to promote the Irishlanguage.“The point is that, even though

as a nation we may not be speak-ing the Irish language, in a way weare; the syntax is still alive andwell. It’s part of our collective psy-che. It’s connected to who we arein a very deep way. “Our Irish lan-guage is part of our identity as anation. Even if a person onlyknows one single Irish word, it isstill so powerful. It is powerful andassuring to have a national cul-tural identity and TG4 helps nur-ture and contain that so othersmay have the privilege of experi-encing their native language in amodern way. It has been a gen-uine honour for me to have beenpart of that story – part of thatpreservation. But we all are insome small way, without even real-ising it – it’s part of who we are.”TG4 and Ros na Rún, she says,

have been pivotal in Galway’ssuccess in securing the title of

UNESCO City of Film, as theyhave been “churning out” highly-skilled film professionals foryears. To Linda, being able to sayshe came from the UNESCO Cityof Film is a “privilege”.“People the world over will

come to recognise Galway as amain player in the game of film-making. That is huge, wonderfuland magical, and we really de-serve it. We will be more thanable to live up to the title. I al-ways viewed coming from Gal-way as a privilege – and indeedcoming from Ireland. We veryoften don’t give our little islandthe credit it deserves. It may raina lot, but it is so damn beautifuland the people are so full ofchats and life and loveliness.There’s a lot of beauty in the sim-plicity of our lives here. So it hasalways felt good to tell peoplewhere I’m from. The title justadds to that now.”Coming from such a strong

cultural city will surely have itsbenefits for Linda as she looks tothe future and prepares to takethe next big step in her career. “Ihave always worked by myself,representing myself, getting workthrough word of mouth and bykeeping an ear to the ground.But I finally decided it was timeto be seen for a wider range ofroles, so I signed with an agencyin Dublin [Nolan MuldoonAgency]. I’m very excited aboutit,” she says.“There may be one or two

things coming up this year, butI’m never convinced it will hap-pen until I’m walking on set! SoI’m not sure, but it is exciting tofeel I’m moving into the nextstage in my career and openingup to all the possibilities that areout there.”In fact, Linda sees a bright fu-

ture for herself, whether she con-tinues her acting career or not.As long as she’s happy and con-tented in herself, regardless ofwhat happens in her career, shefeels she’ll be doing well. “That’skind of how I set goals. They’remore to do with general life-en-joyment. Really that’s what it allboils down to,” she says, impart-ing some final words of wisdom.“Acting is my great passion and

it will always be part of me. Idon’t think there will ever comea day when I’m not an actress.My main ambition would be toremain contented and happywith my little life… count myblessings… look on the brightside, and keep the chin up.”

“Myparentswerealwaysvery kindand en-couraging.So I sup-pose thisnurturedmy aspi-rations[to be anactress]and soI neverreallydoubtedI’d pursueit as acareer.”

AndrewD

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