GREAT interview with Jack Nicholson in The Irish Times last weekend, where the iconic actor and legendary creature of Hollywood proudly proclaimed his Irishness. "I come from the Lynches of Sligo," he revealed. "You know, I went there, but I looked in the phone book and there are nine million Lynches in Sligo."

Indeed, but there's only one Jack Nicholson, and he says he loves to let loose on his visits to Ireland, a place he was first introduced to during his long-term relationship with actress Anjelica Huston, who spent many of her growing-up years in Galway.

"Up the Irish!" he enthused to his interviewer. "I love the Irish. I've been quite a few times. You know Ireland is the only place where I drink. I don't drink, but when I get to Ireland I run off that plane to the nearest bar to get some Guinness draught."

Though he's well into his senior citizenship at the age of 70, he's still riding high at the top of the box office charts with his latest hit The Bucket List, which is opening in Ireland this week. Given that so many of his performances are worthy of award nominations - he's won three Academy Awards, after all - it wouldn't be a surprise to see his work noted yet again this time next year.

His last time on the awards trail came via his role as the Irish American gangster Francis Costello in The Departed, which won the Best Picture Oscar last year. "I wanted to do a different kind of gangster, as an Irish guy who enjoys his job," he says of the role. How could it be any other way with good-time Jack in charge!