Roddy Collins: ‘My biggest regret is telling Johnny Giles when I was 18 to stuff the international team’

I’m very, very agreeable. It’s hard for me to say that, but I think if you were to ask my wife and my kids they’d say, ‘My da just gets on with it’. I’d be very easy-going. As [my wife] Caroline says, I’d eat anything.
Anthony. I think it’s great because I’m a great believer in St Anthony. We’d go to novenas down in St Anthony’s on Merchant’s Quay. He’s very important to me. He’s the go-to man. Especially when you lose stuff. And we’re always losing stuff.
Achill Island. There’s a beautiful cottage in Dugort on Achill Island. My favourite place on the planet.
Off the wall.
I can’t remember the last time I got angry. What makes me angry for starters? Not sport anyway. I wouldn’t get angry over sport. I’d get frustrated and that. Angry to me would be a severe emotion.
[ Health Scan: Roddy CollinsOpens in new window ]
My dad. He’s 42 years dead in three weeks’ time. And it still feels like 42 minutes. He was the best. He dropped dead jogging. Forty-nine years of age, fit as a fiddle. If I could have him back. Do you know what, if I could have him back for one hour. I never hugged him. I hugged him once in my life, and that’s my regret.
My father bringing us to the seaside – coming home from work, telling my ma to get everything ready. He worked shifts, so he could come home early in the day. He’d say to my ma ‘get everything ready’, he’d come in, pack the car, and we’d all head to Donabate. And we used to run up and down the sand dunes all day and we’d be exhausted. My ma would have loads of sandwiches made, and they’d have a big flask. And we’d sit there and it was the happiest time ever.
I’m the second eldest. My older brother Mick, he’s the talented one in the family. He’s the poet, the storyteller, the singer, a powerful-looking fella. There was six of us altogether. There was seven. I lost a brother when I was only young; I don’t remember. I remember coming home from the hospital where he had died young.
Coming second defined me in a way because I had a brother who was really good-looking, a fabulous singer, a great personality and everyone loved him. And I wanted to be him when I was younger. But he wouldn’t even let me hang around with him!
I’m going straight to heaven. There’s only one problem – I won’t know anyone up there. All my mates are in hell. I believe 100 per cent, that there is somewhere else. I believe I’m going to link up with my da, all my uncles, everyone. I believe that. And I hope it. Because I’m getting to the stage now where I’m in the waiting room. There has to be something at the end of this. Defo.
[ The Rodfather: few have lived a life this full and rich and are able to tell the taleOpens in new window ]
When I’m with the family. When I’m with Caroline and the kids. We’d a Sunday dinner there, just gone. There was 10 of us sitting around the table. It was just brilliant. I love it.
And I love Christmas. I absolutely idolise Christmas. Christmas dinner every year, maybe 18 people. I just absolutely love it.
Vinny Jones. He’s one of my best friends.
Telling Johnny Giles when I was 18 years of age to stuff the international team. I was in the Ireland international youth team. We were in the hotel before the game. And I was convinced I was playing. And when he named the team, I wasn’t playing. So, I got up and walked out. That was currency back then. If you’d international caps, you get a club in England.
I said “F your team. I’m out of here”. And I regret it. I spoke to Johnny years afterwards and he said, ‘You were full of yourself, son’. And I said, ‘You got that right, Johnny’. But there you go.
I’m claustrophobic and I won’t go in a lift. I’ll walk up a 20-storey building, 100 per cent, rather than get in a lift.
Roddy Collins will appear at the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin in conversation with Paul Howard on Saturday, November 30th