Rory Cowan was pretty frank in revealing his reasons for leaving Mrs Brown’s Boys

“I really got very, very bored with it.”

The absence of Rory Cowan was arguably the biggest talking point following the Christmas and New Year specials of Mrs Brown’s Boys, which, once again, were amongst the most popular shows on TV over the festive period.

Cowan’s departure from the show came as a shock to fans when the news emerged during the summer and not everyone was enamoured by his replacement (Damien McKiernan) for specials which aired over Christmas.

Not that the reaction to ‘the new Rory’ had too much of an impact on the original Rory, mind, with Cowan revealing to Brenda Donohue on the Ray D’Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio One that he had begun to grow very tired of the role and had little interest in watching it in his absence.

“I wasn't curious (about watching his replacement) at all,” Cowan said.

“I'm passed it, I'm gone, I'm doing something else!”

Although he didn’t see the shows, Cowan still gave a fairly accurate summation of what actually happened in Mrs Brown’s Boys over Christmas.

The fact that Cowan was able to tell Brenda that Cathy was probably having trouble with a boyfriend, that Mrs. Brown and neighbour Winnie were still wondering whether or not Winnie's husband Jacko would be out of hospital in time for Christmas illustrated his frustration with his belief that the show had become predictable.

Clip via BBC

“These things are just there every single year, and it bored me,” Cowan said.

“Once it became a format on the BBC, you couldn't move out of that format, everything had to stay the same... and that became a bore to me, I didn't like it.

“I really got very, very bored with it.”

Cowan, who said he has no intention of returning to the role, did add that the show had been “great fun” to be a part of before it became tied to a format on the BBC and before the demands of performing it all over the world.

He also added that O’Carroll was a great employer and that leaving the financial security the show offered was not likely to have too much of an impact as a result.

“I was able to leave... to say if nothing ever turns up again it doesn't matter I can survive on what I put by,” Cowan added.