<P> He was raised Roman Catholic, and attended the Catholic secondary school Presentation Brothers College; there he did well academically but got into trouble often, sometimes being suspended, until he decided in his fourth year that misbehaving was not worth the hassle . Not keen on sports, a major part of the school's life, Murphy found that creative pursuits were not fully nurtured at the school . However, it was in secondary school that he got his first taste of performing, when he participated in a drama module presented by Pat Kiernan, the director of the Corcadorca Theatre Company; Murphy later described the experience as a "huge high" and a "fully alive" feeling that he set out to chase . His English teacher, the poet and novelist William Wall, encouraged him to pursue acting; however, to Murphy, performing meant becoming a rock star . </P> <P> In his late teens and early twenties, Murphy pursued a career as a musician, singing and playing guitar in several bands alongside his brother, Páidi; the Beatles - obsessed pair named their most successful band' The Sons of Mr. Greengenes', after a 1969 song by another idol, Frank Zappa, which he said "specialised in wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos". They were offered a five - album record deal by Acid Jazz Records, but did not sign the contract; this was owing to Páidi still being in secondary school, and to the small recompense involved in ceding the rights to Murphy's compositions to the record label . Murphy later confessed: "I'm very glad in retrospect that we didn't sign because you kind of sign away your life to a label and the whole of your music ." </P> <P> He began studying law at University College Cork (UCC) in 1996, but he failed his first - year exams because, as he put it, he had "no ambitions to do it". Not only was he busy with his band, but he has said that he knew within days after starting at UCC that law was not what he wanted to do . After seeing Corcadorca's stage production of A Clockwork Orange, directed by Kiernan, acting had begun to pique his interest . His first major role was in the UCC Drama Society's amateur production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which also starred Irish - American comedian Des Bishop . Murphy also played the lead in a UCC Drama production of Little Shop of Horrors, which was performed in the Cork Opera House . According to Murphy, his primary motivation then was to party and meet women, not to begin an acting career . </P> <P> Murphy pressured Pat Kiernan until he got an audition at Corcadorca Theatre Company, and in September 1996, he made his professional acting debut on the stage, playing the part of a volatile Cork teenager in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs . Walsh recalled meeting and discovering Murphy: "There was something about him--he was incredibly enigmatic and he would walk into a room with real presence and you'd go, "My God". It had nothing to do with those bloody eyes that everyone's going on about all the time ." Murphy observed, "I was unbelievably cocky and had nothing to lose, and it suited the part, I suppose ." Originally intended to run for three weeks in Cork, Disco Pigs ended up touring throughout Europe, Canada and Australia for two years, and Murphy left both university and his band . Though he had intended to go back to playing music, he secured representation after his first agent caught a performance of Disco Pigs, and his acting career began to take off . </P>

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