My kids will never need a bodyguard because they'll have me.

Yoga is great for easing my back pain. It also helps me keep stress at bay, which is something I can suffer from.

It does annoy me when I walk into a room and there are six men over the age of 40 with, let's just say, a major gut problem, and they're saying 'hang on there Dervla, don't eat your chocolate cake at dessert.'

I'm only 5ft 2in so a significant increase in weight is really going to be noticed.

Who hasn't had an argument with their mother-in-law?

I've made a lot of mistakes in my career but the biggest mistake I've made is to turn down work.

I am all for high art but I owe it to myself to be clever about it and do commercial things too.

Ballykissangel' made me a household name, and I am enormously grateful for that, but I don't feel it would ever have developed me into a better actress had I stayed.

A lot of actresses say they are 24 when they are 34 but I find that ridiculous. I wish we didn't succumb to the youth-is-all ideology in this industry, because there is a huge audience out there who want to relate to characters of their own age played by actors of their own age.