Movie director Danny Boyle ‘broke his Irish mother’s heart’ by refusing to become a priest

British film maker Danny Boyle has admitted that he once broke his Irish mother’s heart – by deciding not to become a priest.

The Oscar winning director was speaking ahead of the release of his 2019 film ‘Yesterday’ which sees a struggling musician wake up one morning to find that he is the only person to have ever hear of the Beatles or any of their songs.

Boyle has strong connections with Ireland. His father’s family are from Mayo, while his mother comes from Ballinasloe.

He said: “When we were children, we’d come and spend the summer here on the farm. It was pretty basic where we lived, but it was lovely.”

Boyle’s mother had wanted him to become a priest his urge to utilise his creativity proved to be too strong.

He said: “I realise in retrospect that I kind of broke her heart by not doing that, but at the time, I didn’t really notice. It would have meant a great deal to her, it would have made her very proud.

“I was taught by Salesians, and it was a priest who said to me, ‘I don’t think you should do that, you know, I think you should wait – and you’ll see, there’s other things’. And there was, there was girls and music, and culture, yeah.”

Boyle also spoke about singer Ed Sheeran, who makes a cameo appearance in the movie.

He said: “He’s very funny isn’t he. He’s got a great kind of self-deprecating wit within him, and how he protects that I don’t know. He said to us ‘you asked Chris Martin first, didn’t you’, and we said yeah. And he said, ‘I bet you asked Harry Styles too before you got to me’, which we didn’t but he’s very funny. He really has a good sense of humour.

“Great performer, too. I saw him first in Cork, oh God, it was amazing, I mean the audience was full of redheads, and it’s like he was this symbol for them, their patron saint or something. It was absolutely beautiful.”

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