Gina Moxley: 'My mother ran a pub, but she was thwarted. She could sew anything, but my father was a bit of a blackguard with the drink'

Gina Moxley is a writer, actor and member of Aosdána who turns 68 this week. She studied painting at the Crawford School of Art before moving to Dublin, where she still lives. Her first play, 'Danti-Dan', commissioned by Rough Magic, won the Stewart Parker Trust Award in 1996. She grew up a little outside Cork in a family-owned pub called the Angler's Rest, the eighth generation to run it on the banks of the River Lee. Locals played cards in the kitchen while children tried to watch television from cupboards. Focail and Conundrum are daily word puzzles designed to test vocabulary and lateral thinking skills.

I grew up a little bit outside Cork, in a pub called the Angler's Rest. It was a family business, we were the eighth generation in that pub, on the banks of the River Lee. Locals used to play cards in our kitchen, and we'd be in our pyjamas, sitting up on cupboards, trying to look at the TV when they'd be telling us to shut up while they were playing poker.

Gina Moxley is a writer, actor and member of Aosdána, and turns 68 this week. She studied painting at the Crawford School of Art before moving to Dublin, where she still lives. Her first play, 'Danti-Dan', commissioned by Rough Magic, won the Stewart Parker Trust Award in 1996. I grew up a little bit outside Cork, in a pub called the Angler's Rest.

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