KEIRAN Gallacher touches his head quite a lot during the chat, by way of reassurance perhaps he still has some hair left?

 

"I think so," he says, grinning. "I've only had it cut this short a few days ago. It's normally a bit long and fluffy.

"But it's weird the way people now treat me because I'm a skinhead. I get second looks on the bus and the train. When I go into shops people stare at me. I've suddenly become the object of suspicion.

"Yet, the great thing is it's helped me to think about the character I'm playing. He's a bit of an outcast."

Nineteen year-old Keiran is starring in this week's Oran Mor play The Day the Pope Emptied Croy, alongside Sean Purden Brown and Nathan Byrne.

The play is set in the early eighties, on a day in Croy when everyone has gone to see the Pope.

Keiran plays sixteen year-old Finbar, (reduced to Bar).

"Bar is sixteen, the youngest brother of a Catholic family in Croy," the young actor explains.

"He's a huge Celtic fan, and he fights a lot.

"But he's also gay. And he's part of a community he doesn't fit into."

Is Bar raging against the world? Does his sexuality create the inner turmoil.

"Yes, and rage is his defence mechanism," says Keirnan.

"The fact he's gay and can't tell anyone how he really feels is eating him up."

The young skinhead however meets up Ranald, a middle class boy from Glasgow who doesn't fit into Croy. And Bar, we learn, falls in love with Ranald.

Ranald meanwhile wants to be a punk, and strangely perhaps, Ranald wants to be like Bar. He likes the fact Bar is a wee hard man who sniffs glue.

What happens to both of them? Well, a third character emerges, but to reveal what this other person brings to the dynamic would be to spoil the story.

"It's a great script," says Keiran of Martin McCormick's play. "It certainly makes you think about the world at this time in a town such as Croy."

Keiran was born in Portsmouth; his father worked for the Navy, although his family are originally from Glasgow. On return to Scotland, the family moved to Fife.

Interestingly, Keiran never planned on becoming an actor. He enjoyed drama at school but wasn't convinced this was the world for him.

"Funnily enough, the last two years at school featured debates with me and my teacher over my career.

"I wasn't at all sure about acting. I know how difficult a world it can be, how there is little job security, but it was my teacher who reckoned I was good at it and I should at least explore the possibility."

Kiernan had thought of joining the Navy and becoming a Warfare Officer.

"The school acting weakened my passion for the Navy so I went to college for a year to study performing arts and realised this what I want to do. I love it."

Kieran is clever enough however not to put all his eggs into the performing basket. He's currently studying Politics and Economics with the Open University.

Yet, he's delighted to be appearing in his first professional theatre piece.

"I don't think that reality has hit me yet," he says. "Especially since I never imagined I'd land this role.

The young actor was chosen for the part of the hard man to his complete surprise.

"I read the script and saw myself as Ranald, the more serious character," he admits.

"But at the audition I was asked to read as Bar. And I was so uncomfortable with the hard man act I reckoned I'd totally screwed it up.

"Then I got the recall, and told I was wanted to play Bar. I think that when I had read alongside Nathan we just sort of clicked."

And now he's found his inner hard man?

"Well, I had to work at it," he says, laughing. "I looked at some of my extended family for inspiration.

"And there was a hard man at my school, who like Bar also had a soft side.

"But I guess I've tried to call up my own aggression, to think back to the scraps I had at school."

He adds, smiling and touching his hair.

"The hair cut helps," he says, "I definitely feel tougher when I realise it's so short."

€¢ The Day The Pope Came To Croy, Oran Mor, until Saturday.