Former Mrs Brown's Boys star Rory Cowan 'too old to continue playing role'

Former Mrs Brown's Boys star Rory Cowan says he was simply "too old" to continue playing the role of Rory Brown on the TV and theatre shows.

The 58-year-old left the hugely popular show, written by and starring Brendan O'Carroll, in July after 26 years.

"I thought I'm too old to play that character now," he tells Independent.ie. "Times have changed. 

"The way I played that character, that character is from a time [back] then. It's not a character a 58 year old should be playing."

Rory played one of Agnes Brown's sons with the other two played by Paddy Houlihan and Pat 'Pepsi' Sheilds and he feels the actors are now too old to play the roles of boys.

"Unfortunately everybody in Mrs Brown's Boys is getting older," he says. "Mrs Brown can get older, Grandad can get older but Mrs Brown's Boys, they're not boys, they're middle aged men now on the verge of old age.

"When I look at the guy who plays Grandad he's five years older than me. The guy who plays Mark now he's actually older than Grandad."

Mrs Brown's Boys cast

Rory felt it was time to go for other reasons, too. His mother suffers from dementia and he did not want to go on tour to Australia and be away from her.

Since he departed he says he has not spoken to Brendan O'Carroll.

"Brendan and Jenny live in Florida. Danny is in Donegal. Everyone is spread around," he says. "I haven't had a chance to see him and I haven't had a chance to talk to him."

However, he has kept in touch will fellow cast members Gary Hollywood and Fiona O'Carroll.

He is adamant that he will never return to the show, not even for a one-off special, "No, no, no, no, no I've burnt those bridges there. I doubt I'd even be asked to go back. But even if I did I've no interest in doing that again. No, I've left and that's it."

The actor says he is taking time out now to look after his mother and to think about what he would like to do as he is "financially comfortable".

"Brendan O'Carroll was a very generous employer and I earned a lot of money. The only thing I did [was] I did up my house.  I didn't buy a bigger house, I didn't buy flash cars."