play taps into that. It was also the discovery of a new writer and there was a lot of hype and excitement about it. It’s a terrible pity Stuart’s been taken up in TV recently, there is a mighty play in operation there, it’s quite brilliant...Barney [Roddy's farmhand character] is a scapegoat. He is set up before the play begins as the fall-guy for the higher echelons and the authority figures within the organisation. It is still a very sensitive subject. People like Jean McConville were very like Barney, scapegoats to cover up the higher-up figures in the IRA and that’s still extremely controversial to this day. What Barney represents, there is nothing innocent about him, he’s child-like but he’s guilty in the sense that he’s involved. I see Barney as the missing mother. He is the only allowance that Stuart gives to femininity and that notion of caring and men being affectionate. I always thought there was that feminine aspect in the Barney and Thomas relationship within the family dynamic. He represents that missing mother I think." Television and film work Through primarily a theater actor working in Northern Ireland and Ireland, Roddy is best known internationally for work in film and television, having appeared over 60 films and television episodes. One of his best known roles on the screen is also one of his briefest, namely as the assassin who tried to kill Bran Stark in The Kingsroad episode of Game of Thrones. In 2013, he told the Irish journalist Hilary Fennell: "Being a professional actor means holding onto your own persona despite edging towards someone else’s. It can be a dangerous process at times: holding onto what you are while being someone else. I regard myself as a shy person. I was a very shy youngster, that’s why I was attracted to drama...I’ve told both my kids how much they have taught me. They’ve taught me to be more fully human and they’ve taught me how to love. The bottom line is love. If I could change one thing in our society it would be racism and bigotry. The fact that some people think they are better than others due to the colour of their skin" In 2018, he starred in Séamus, a short film written and directed by the American filmmaker Gursimran Sandhu. Filmography Screenplay (1991) Between the Lines (1993) Screen Two (1994) Circles of Deceit