In a major in-depth interview in the new issue of Hot Press – out on Friday – the real Joan Collins TD stands up, for what must be one of the most candid interviews ever conducted by this publication.

In a riveting six-page interview by Jason O'Toole, the Dublin South Central TD shares her forthright views on drugs, sex work, the Stardust fire, and more. She also insists that the Angelus should be removed from RTÉ, the Dáil prayer should be scrapped, and doesn't rule out going into coalition with Sinn Fein.

In one shocking moment, she recalls getting robbed at gunpoint when she worked at the GPO.

"I used to work at the counter in the GPO and I got done – got robbed – two or three times," she reveals. "It was quite shocking. Do you remember the GPO? It had the low counters. He just came over the top – and I just ran.

"I was back to work the following day," she adds. "At that time, they didn’t even give you time off after an incident like that. Robberies would have been quite regular with The Monk and all that. They used to do quite a lot of post office robberies. But yeah, the union, the CWU, then campaigned to get three or four days off, to go to the counsellor, GP, wherever, you know. But yeah, not nice."

Collins also states that Ireland should decriminalise marijuana – noting that she would have "smoked hash, on and off". She also discusses the night that turned her off hard drugs forever:

"In my 20s, I went over to see a friend in London and I took something at a big party and I don’t know what the hell it was, but I never took drugs after that again because I got such a fright. It was a very bad trip. I wanted to jump out a window! And when I came out of that, I said, ‘No, never again’. It scared the living daylights out of me."

Elsewhere in the interview, the TD expresses her support for legalising sex work.

"I support the sex workers setting up their own organisation, their union," she says. "I think they should be legalised to protect the women, because they’ve been driven underground and the legislation (making the purchase of sex illegal) is making them more vulnerable to exploitation. So, I do think it should be legalised. You’d have to ask the question: why are women put in a situation where the only option is to make money through sex? They shouldn’t be forced into it, but if women are in that situation they should have legal protection."

She also tells Jason O'Toole about growing up around the corner from the Stardust – and states that the fire "had a big impact on the whole area", revealing she had friends who died that night.

"One of my brothers was in the fire," she says. "He was very lucky. He got out of the fire doors. It was blocked initially and the barman managed to get it open and they flooded out. It was just horrendous. I would have been in that place a lot when I was younger.

"I don’t know why I wasn’t there that night," she continues. "It was so popular for teenagers our age. I mean, I was, what, 19? But that’s what you’d have in your head all the time: ‘I could have been there’."

Official State Apology for the Stardust Fire at the Dáil, 23 April 2024. Copyright Bailey Shropshire/hotpress.com

The interview also finds Collins declining to comment on Conor McGregor, talking about her famous actress namesake, recalling her famous spat with Bertie Ahern, sharing a tale about being arrested on holidays, explaining why the Israeli and Russian ambassadors should be expelled, and reflecting on the far right in Irish society.

It is a startlingly honest, no-holds-barred, shoot-from-the-hip interview – and is available to read in full now in the new issue of Hot Press: