How many films and TV shows has Ireland's own Colm Meaney been in during his long career in show business? Whatever number you’re thinking of, you probably need to increase it because, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) the star of The Snapper, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Intermission has featured in 139 films and TV shows since his screen debut in 1973. When Ray D’Arcy puts it to him that this stat makes him the most-credited Irish actor of all time, ahead of the likes of Gabriel Byrne and Pierce Brosnan, Colm comes back with a deeply-considered and self-reflective reply:

"That’s probably due to the fact that I, you know, do any old crap."

Of course he’s not being serious there – although the dubious-sounding TV series The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns does appear on his IMDb filmography – but he does sound genuinely surprised that next year will be the 50th anniversary of his first screen appearance in Hatchet, an episode of RTÉ’s Thursday Play Date. And he does point out that he’d been working in the theatre for years before his first screen role. But it’s his latest screen role that Ray wants to talk about first. Colm stars in a film called Confession as Father Peter, who’s locking up his Boston church one night when a wounded man with a gun bursts in:

"[It’s] a dialogue-driven story where two actors, two characters really engage emotionally like this. You don’t see those kind of scripts anymore, you know what I mean? So many scripts you read are not dialogue-driven, you know, or dialogue-intense, even, it’s much more visually-oriented. So, from an actor’s point of view, this is fascinating, you know, and really juicy and you really want to do it."

Which he did. The film – a thriller – was made during lockdown, has a cast of five and gets two thumbs up from Ray. But given Colm’s busiest man in show biz status, Confession isn’t the only part of his new release schedule that gets talked about. He also makes a guest star appearance in the long-running US sitcom, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The show was originally supposed to film Colm’s episodes in Ireland, but the pandemic put paid to that, so instead, they recreated their Irish locations in Los Angeles.

"And they had plans to shoot along the Cliffs of Moher and all that. It would have been beautiful, you know, but it didn’t work out."

So we are denied the sight of Danny De Vito raging against somebody atop County Clare’s famous landmark. Shame. And no, they did not recreate the cliffs in LA. Another shame. But what about the really important stuff? Will we be seeing more of Chief Miles O’Brien, given Patrick Stewart’s return to the role of Jean-Luc Picard and the proliferation of Star Trek shows on streaming sites these days? Don’t hold your breath, seems to be the answer to that one:

"I doubt it somehow. You know it’s been – jeez, it’s nearly 25 years since I had a spacesuit on, you know? I don't think it’d fit me anymore."

Colm isn’t sure how many times Paramount can go to the Star Trek well, given that there are currently at least five shows streaming or in production from the Trek universe. But, you know, never say never, right?

"It would have to be a great script and I’d have to be persuaded, put it that way, by a lot of – "

Here he pauses and Ray urges him on with, "Yeah, go on, a lot of what?" and Colm admits that, yes, "a bit of moolah as well" would be required. So hopefully we can look forward to Star Trek: O’Brien sometime in the not-too-distant future. Please make it happen, Paramount.

You can hear Ray’s full chat with Colm Meaney by going here.