Interesting interview with actor Colm Meaney here at Broadwayworld.com

TJ: Of course, you have done many film roles like THE COMMITMENTS but everybody knows you from your work in the STAR TREK series as Chief Miles O'Brien. So that sort of makes you like an icon for science fiction buffs?

MEANEY: Well, yes I guess to the STAR TREK fans, which is a kind of a world unto itself. I always found it amusing in that it was always like I was two different actors with two different careers. There was the STAR TREK audience who knew me for that work exclusively and then there were people who knew me from the films I had made, particularly the independent and European films, who were almost unaware that I had even done STAR TREK. So it was kind of nice because it was like I had two separate careers.