Linda Breathnach is an Irish actress who first came to prominence starring in the Irish language soap opera Ros na Rún. She now lives in Los Angeles where she is pursuing her acting career while also teaching yoga. Linda enjoys the healthy lifestyle and creative community in LA. Though pursuing opportunities abroad, she remains proud of her Galway roots and feels the city's recent designation as a UNESCO City of Film will benefit Irish filmmakers. Linda hopes to take her career to the next level by signing with an agent in Dublin and continuing to balance acting with a healthy, spiritual lifestyle.

1. 2 | GALWAYnow March 2015
and now she resides in sunny L.A.
“California just makes sense for
me. I’m very much into yoga and
healthy vegetarian eating and
that’s so big there that there are
many like-minded people. The
weather is amazing and there is
so much outdoor stuff to do. I’ll
be teaching a yoga Class in Grif-
fith Park and perhaps one on the
beach also,” she says of her life in
Los Angeles.
In 2015, Linda travelled to Ker-
ala in South India, where she
studied to become a yoga instruc-
tor and she now runs a yoga and
healthy lifestyle blog called ‘Yoga
Veggie Glow’, which can be
found on Facebook. “I created
the blog to share some of the
healthy lifestyle and wisdom I’ve
learnt along the way. A few small
healthy changes can change a
person’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 the
healthy, active lifestyle there and
feels very lucky to experience life
in America and to have the
chance to travel. “Maybe if my life
had been different I would have
travelled more when I was
younger. I didn’t, but I am cer-
tainly doing that now. I’ve trav-
elled all over the world in the
past few years,” she says. Milan,
Florence, Pamplona and Toronto
are just a handful of places she’s
visited. “I spent six weeks walking
across Spain on the Camino De
Santiago. I walked over 800km in
one go with a backpack on my
back. That experience gave me
such courage. I was so frightened
inda Breathnach, one of
Galway’s brightest film
stars, first appeared on the
small screen as Róise
de Burca on the pop-
ular TG4 soap Ros na
Rún and has starred in numerous
other Irish-language shows since.
Ros na Rún was a show where
she made her mark and learnt
the ropes of the television acting
world. Now she’s moving on to
bigger and better things in Holly-
wood where she hopes to fur-
ther her career in acting in
addition to teaching yoga, while
also continuing her work in TV
shows closer to home.
Linda inherited her American
citizenship from her mother who
lived in New York for nearly 20
years. The popular Ros na Rún
actress had always planned on
spending some time in America
LAWoman
Linda Bhreathnach first came
to puBLic attention when she
starred as róise in ros na rún.
foLLowing a series of success-
fuL roLes, she is now Living in
L.a where she is comBining her
acting career with yoga, she
teLLs Jessica thompson.

2. March 2015 GALWAYnow | 3
feature
going out there on my own, but I
think doing that has given me the
courage to pursue further adven-
tures and that has led me to Cali-
fornia.”
No matter where she goes,
Linda never forgets her Galway
roots. The Rosmuc native won
Miss Galway in 2007 and was a
runner up in the Miss Ireland
contest, but also started her act-
ing career in Galway. Galway’s
success in winning the UNESCO
‘City of Film’ title in December is
something that Linda feels will
only benefit the movie industry
in the west. “[This title] really
makes us a player in the interna-
tional field of filmmaking. Galway
has fantastic infrastructure and a
skilled workforce. It’s an ideal
place for filmmakers to shoot.
Everything they need is in Galway
– not to mention the stunning
and 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 the
young age of five, when she
staged shows with her sisters in
their 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 aspirations
and so I never really doubted I’d
pursue it as a career.” But she did
have one or two other dreams for
her future too. “There were defi-
nitely two other moments in my
childhood when I considered
being a baker so that I could
make my own delicious treats
every day. I also considered being
a fire woman as the trucks were
cool. In the end I opted for the
acting… I figured I’d have a taste
of more worlds this way.”
Since she began her acting ca-
reer as a teenager, Linda has
played various roles, including
Róise de Búrca in Ros na Rún,
and the more recent role of Sarah
O’Regan in Corp Agus Anam. Not
many can say they walked into
their dream career straight from
school, but Linda was thrust
straight into the working world
when she took on the role of
Róise. “It was really weird. I
didn’t really realise I was a child
living in an adult world. I wasn’t
really prepared. I wanted to act
and I wanted to be a grown-up,
but really I was just a teenager. I
remember never being able to re-
late to all the conversations that
would happen at work. This used
to make me feel somewhat
inept,” she says of her early act-
ing days. Though she loved being
an actress, she remembers feel-
ing sad that she never had the
typical college experience that
her peers enjoyed. But in many
ways, she felt she had that with
her work. “The TG4 show Seacht
was like going to college. There
were a load of us living together
in this big old house in Belfast,
acting together every day and so-
cialising together at the week-
ends,” she said, remembering her
role as Eithne in the Irish lan-
guage show.
Linda has done a lot of work
with the Irish language, with her
most recent show Corp Agus
Anam receiving high praise when
series two aired in 2014. The sec-
ond series of the IFTA award-win-
ning show was also nominated
for a Prix Europa and received
“fantastic reviews”, which Linda
says 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 gave
it fantastic reviews. The writer
and director, Darach Mac Con
Iomaire and producer, Paddy
Hayes, are such a magical team.
They have such a clear vision and
work so well together.”
“There is talk of a third series,
which would be fantastic. It’s get-
ting better every year. It’s exciting
to see Irish drama go in this direc-
tion. We’re getting better at creat-
ing our own niche I think. Corp
Agus Anam is being classed as
Celtic Noir and being compared to
shows such as The Bridge and
Love/Hate. It really is holding its
own out there in the world of big,
bad, beautiful TV drama.”
The character of Sarah is one
that is close to Linda’s heart as
it’s her most recent role. “Corp
Agus Anam has special meaning
for me as I think it’s such an im-
portant form of storytelling.
Darach [the writer and director]
bases all his stories on real-life
events, so I feel it gives stories a
“Maybe
ifmylife
hadbeen
different
Iwould
have
travelled
more
whenI
was
younger.
Ididn’t,
butIam
certainly
doing
thatnow.”

3. 4 | GALWAYnow March 2015
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voice they might not have other-
wise had.”
“Of course my first role in tele-
vision was so exciting – playing
Róise in Ros na Rún. All I ever
wanted was to be a professional
actress, so when I was cast in that
at 17 it was a real dream come
true,” Linda says, reminiscing on
the start of her career.
“Seacht was wonderful as well. I
made some of my best friends on
that show, not to mention on Ros
na Rún. But to be honest, I couldn’t
choose just one character as my
favourite. I’d feel I was somehow
slighting my other characters.”
But she feels she can really re-
late to Eithne in Seacht. Eithne is
a young college student, and
while working on the show, Linda
was also studying hard for her
Arts degree in NUI Galway – seiz-
ing the opportunity to go to col-
lege after all. Fiona, the daughter
of a publican who was also a
politician in The Running Mate
was another character she could
relate to, as this was who she was
in real life. But after some
thought, she says she can relate
to all of her characters – some
perhaps a little more than others.
“Sometimes I wished my char-
acters reacted in different ways. I
wanted them to be stronger. I’d
love to see more shows where
women have more pivotal roles
and aren’t a varying degree of a
damsel in distress,” she says. The
show Girls by Lena Dunham is
one she enjoys and refers to as
“refreshing” with its strong fe-
male characters.
One thing that all of Linda’s
characters have in common is the
use of the Irish language. To
Linda, the Irish language is part
of who we are as people. “The
remnants and nuances of it are
still to be heard in how we Irish
people speak English… how we
phrase things like ‘I’m after being
to the shop’ for instance. ‘I’m
after’ isn’t really English. It’s Irish
English. It’s a direct translation
from the Irish language. This is
dotted all through how we
speak,” says Linda, who was an
official spokesperson for ‘Seach-
tain na Gaeilge’, a nationwide
campaign to promote the Irish
language.
“The point is that, even though
as a nation we may not be speak-
ing the Irish language, in a way we
are; the syntax is still alive and
well. It’s part of our collective psy-
che. It’s connected to who we are
in a very deep way. “Our Irish lan-
guage is part of our identity as a
nation. Even if a person only
knows one single Irish word, it is
still so powerful. It is powerful and
assuring to have a national cul-
tural identity and TG4 helps nur-
ture and contain that so others
may have the privilege of experi-
encing their native language in a
modern way. It has been a gen-
uine honour for me to have been
part of that story – part of that
preservation. But we all are in
some 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’s
success in securing the title of
UNESCO City of Film, as they
have been “churning out” highly-
skilled film professionals for
years. To Linda, being able to say
she came from the UNESCO City
of Film is a “privilege”.
“People the world over will
come to recognise Galway as a
main player in the game of film-
making. That is huge, wonderful
and magical, and we really de-
serve it. We will be more than
able to live up to the title. I al-
ways viewed coming from Gal-
way as a privilege – and indeed
coming from Ireland. We very
often don’t give our little island
the credit it deserves. It may rain
a lot, but it is so damn beautiful
and the people are so full of
chats and life and loveliness.
There’s a lot of beauty in the sim-
plicity of our lives here. So it has
always felt good to tell people
where I’m from. The title just
adds to that now.”
Coming from such a strong
cultural city will surely have its
benefits for Linda as she looks to
the future and prepares to take
the next big step in her career. “I
have always worked by myself,
representing myself, getting work
through word of mouth and by
keeping an ear to the ground.
But I finally decided it was time
to be seen for a wider range of
roles, so I signed with an agency
in Dublin [Nolan Muldoon
Agency]. I’m very excited about
it,” she says.
“There may be one or two
things coming up this year, but
I’m never convinced it will hap-
pen until I’m walking on set! So
I’m not sure, but it is exciting to
feel I’m moving into the next
stage in my career and opening
up to all the possibilities that are
out 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 of
what happens in her career, she
feels she’ll be doing well. “That’s
kind of how I set goals. They’re
more to do with general life-en-
joyment. Really that’s what it all
boils down to,” she says, impart-
ing some final words of wisdom.
“Acting is my great passion and
it will always be part of me. I
don’t think there will ever come
a day when I’m not an actress.
My main ambition would be to
remain contented and happy
with my little life… count my
blessings… look on the bright
side, and keep the chin up.”
“My
parents
were
always
verykind
anden-
couraging.
SoIsup-
posethis
nurtured
myaspi-
rations
[tobean
actress]
andso
Inever
really
doubted
I’dpursue
itasa
career.”
AndrewDownes