O'Malley stated, "The stress of politics, one of the great performance arts, killed my father at 47 – while I would like nothing better than appearing in the great theatre that is Dáil Éireann [the Irish parliament] even for just one day, I feel the price one would pay is far too high. Politics I have discovered, is a thankless activity which only breeds animosity and ultimately ends in failure – no matter how well intentioned one is." O'Malley was very friendly over many years with Irish actor Richard Harris, who was also from Limerick. O'Malley's father was once engaged to Harris's sister Audrey, but she died aged 21. O'Malley and Harris were often spotted together in hostelries around London - The Coal Hole on The Strand and The Wilton in Kinnerton Street - and at rugby matches in Britain when the Munster team were playing - often seen with Peter O'Toole in tow - or in Kilkee in County Clare, Ireland and at Dingle Races in Kerry Ireland . O'Malley and Harris both had an interest in horse racing - Harris owned two racehorses - Cromwell and A Tramp Shining, and O'Malley also owned two, Mustang Prince and Running Deer, a filly named after an Indian character in Harris's film A Man Called Horse. O'Malley was one of the last people to spend time with former Taoiseach Charles Haughey before he died. Haughey, who was O'Malley's father's best friend, requested a meeting with O'Malley in his final days and O'Malley spent an afternoon in June 2006 with a very ill Haughey at his home in Dublin, accompanied by Noel Pearson, producer of the film My Left Foot. Haughey died three days later. O'Malley studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he appeared as Creon in Antigone with American actress Amy Irving in his final year production. On leaving LAMDA O'Malley was a founding member of Common Stock Theatre Company, one of London's first community theatre groups, which was based in an old church on Pentonville Road in London – where the clown Grimaldi is buried - and which took theatre to the poor of London's East End. A fellow founder member of Common Stock was Dame Harriet Walter O'Malley married Gabrielle Leavy in June 1993 at Farm Street Church in London. From 1992 to 2009, O'Malley appeared in the ITV series Sharpe. After Bobby Ewing