Jeremy Irons is featured in the October 2017 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, in an article by David Kamp, with photos by Simon Upton.
Scroll down to read the article and view all of the images…
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Click on the thumbnails to view the full-sized images:
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Jeremy Irons, Smudge and a friend sailed on Willing Lass, to attend the Ballydehob Old Boats Gathering on Saturday 19 August 2017.
Thank you to the Fastnet Trails, Ballydehob, Aughadown and Schull Facebook page for the photos and video.
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Jeremy Irons was a part of the new RTE Television series Creedon’s Wild Atlantic Way.
Here’s a clip:
Photo via @johncreedon on Twitter
Photo via @johncreedon on Twitter
Jeremy Irons was at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Limerick, Ireland on Saturday 10 May 2014, to give a presentation on his restoration of Kilcoe Castle. The event was part of the Irish Georgian Society and Limerick City and County Council’s traditional building skills exhibition at The Hunt Museum. Jeremy’s talk was originally scheduled to take place at The Hunt Museum but, due to the large number wanting to attend, the talk was moved to St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Scroll down to read two first-hand accounts of Jeremy’s presentation.
The best of Jeremy Irons in Limerick – from Limerick Today
Thank you very much to Garry Irwin, David Morrissey, Kate O’Shea, Kate McLoughney, the Irish Georgian Society, The Hunt Museum, RumpusX, Emma Gilleece, Dr. Ursula Callaghan, David Sheehan, Deirdre Power, Tom Cassidy and all those who took the photos you see here. Scroll to the bottom for the gallery of individual photos and click on the thumbnails for enlargements.
The following account is by Garry Irwin
Jeremy Irons Talk – 10/05/2014 – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick
Despite the terrible weather in Limerick that day, a good crowd was gathering around the cathedral in the lead up to the Jeremy Irons talk at noon.
The talk was due to be given in the Hunt Museum, but seeing as its biggest room holds about fifty people at a push, it was moved across the bridge to the 12th Century church, which accommodated the, I’m guessing, near two hundred people who braved the elements that day. Jeremy did say that if you thought the weather was bad here, you should have been in West Cork that morning! While some people did mention that they had come from even further afield to catch his talk that afternoon.
The presentation was to be a series of photographs detailing the restoration of the 15th Century Kilcoe Castle, but some technical gremlins saw to it that things did not go smoothly. So before it began proper, Jeremy said he would talk about how he came into possession of the castle. But before he even did that, he beckoned everybody at the back to fill seats at the front. He was miked up but still didn’t want it to feel like he was giving a formal lecture. So what did he do? He shot off to the side aisles of the church and started carrying chairs to the front of the nave, nearer where the screen was positioned. After doing this a number of times, people eventually helped him until all the chairs were in the middle aisle of the church. This may have annoyed those who had gone to the trouble of reserving their seats at the front! Then just as all the chairs were repositioned, Jeremy stood up and said, ‘seeing as we are in such a setting, I think it right that the last shall be first and the first shall be last’, before gesturing for those at the back to come fill the remaining seats. During the talk, Jeremy constantly moved up and down the centre aisle, so no-one was left out and everyone could hear him.
Jeremy gave a brief history of the castle, before telling the story of how it came into his possession. He got someone else to buy it for him, for fear the price would be jacked up if his name was attached to the purchase. Eventually the screen was working and the talk could begin, but unfortunately the pictures were not in order and Jeremy would have to prompt an unseen figure from behind the screen in order to move from one slide to the next, but this didn’t hamper the talk in any way.
He admitted that at the outset of the restoration he didn’t have a clue as to what would be required, how long it would take, or what the cost would be, but he did say that it ended up not unlike what would be needed on a film set, where lots of different moving parts come together for a single end goal.
Jeremy breezed through photograph after photograph, delighting in elucidating on each aspect of the restoration. Every time someone appeared in a picture Jeremy would go into who they were, where they came from, and what they did on site. It was very rare that someone popped up in a picture and he did not seem to know everything about them.
It seemed that during the restoration a wide range of people came onto the island where Kilcoe Castle is situated. Wandering German artists, French masonry students, local farmers driving ancient tractors, cranes brought in from Paris, wooden beams from English forests, woodworkers, metalworkers, electricians, sailors, and even musicians. All became part of the workforce, which itself became one big family during the six years of the restoration. At the beginning he said he was handing out brown envelopes for work done at the end of the week, but by the end he was one of the biggest employers in the local area and was giving out redundancies to people when the work was eventually finished.
While the large crowd was always attentive during the two hours of the talk, a number of tales went down well with those in the cathedral. Jeremy needed to get a number of large furniture items into the castle, and the only way to do this was through a gap in the roof at the very top. So they all had to be hoisted up and then carefully lowered into the building. The usual array of furniture was shown being brought up, and then they were shown inside where they were to be used. Sofas, a piano, and a life-size horse?
Someone in the audience had to ask, what was the story with the horse? So Jeremy went on to explain how he passed an antique shop and just knew he had to take the horse away. So after furiously rapping on the front of the shop until the owner appeared, the shop was closed, he asked how much it would be to take the horse of the owner’s hands? He was slightly taken aback by the figure that was he was given. So Jeremy and his friend (whose name I unfortunately can’t remember) went for a bit of a liquid lunch to mull it over. They eventually reasoned that they could use the horse as a mould, and after they had sold copies of this horse mould to people to put in their gardens or wherever, they would then surely make the money back with interest. So the horse was bought, but as of yet, hasn’t made them any money.
Another time Jeremy had been continuing his research, so as to aide the restoration in being as accurate as possible. One day as he looked up at his castle, he realised that the castellation was wrong. The castellation is the defensive parapets ringing the roof of the castle. He knew it would be something he could not unsee every time he looked upon it, so it would have to be changed. Jeremy’s wife said that was fine, but he would have to be the one to break it to the workers. So up he went to the finished roof were the workers were and told them that it would have to be redone. One of the workers commented, ‘the thing I hate about you actors, is your need for —– rehearsals.’ Jeremy never revealed the swearword that was used.
Lots of other little stories and asides were given. How Jeremy’s dog would often somehow climb up thirteen flights of scaffolding to join him at the top of the building. Or the time a worker (name escapes me again) decided to tell him that he was quitting after working there for years. Jeremy was surprised, and they organised to have a big session to give him a good send off. Come Monday morning though, he was back on site working. Jeremy went up to him and asked, ‘I thought you left?’, ‘I was only trying to see if I could get a pay rise out of you’, was the reply.
Jeremy also talked of how he was not a fan of some of the reporting that was done during the time of the restoration. How he had refused to talk to reporters about it while it was ongoing, yet they still found something to write about. He was not impressed when the castle was coined as his ‘pink erection.’ Two reasons; his is not nearly as impressive! Nor is the castle painted pink. He prefers to see it as a shade of ochre, and he ended the talk on a picture of the impressive fully restored castle and a lengthy round of applause from the appreciative audience.
After the talk, Jeremy took a number of questions from the crowd; he was asked about how the castle held up during the recent stormy weather; what help, if any, did he receive from the Irish government during the restoration. Here he went into his feelings about the bungling red tape and laws which do not engender a sense of historical understanding. How Ireland has so many worthy sites, but they are left in their state of ruin. As the clock ticked past two, Jeremy ducked outside for a quick cigarette as people lined up to give him a short word of thanks or to get a photograph with the star.
Jeremy Irons was giving a talk for the Irish Georgian Society, who were hosting a weekend of conservation and education awareness to do with Ireland’s architectural heritage. This was in association with the Hunt Museum, and the talk was held in Limerick’s St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Garry Irwin
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The following account is by David Morrissey:
Refurbishment of Kilcoe Castle
When: Saturday May 10th 2014 12pm-2pm
Where: St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick city.
Organiser: Irish Georgian Society I.G.S.
Admission: Free
Speaker: Jeremy Irons
A crowd of around a hundred people attended the amazing St. Mary’s cathedral in Limerick City for this exciting and in-depth account of Jeremy Irons’ complete refurbishment of his West Cork home, Kilcoe Castle. This presentation began in bizarre circumstances with a plethora of technical and seating issues to be ironed out before Jeremy could begin his detailed slide-show. With the waiting crowd assembled within the church, Jeremy entered the cathedral with great enthusiasm and vigour. Immediately he began to re-arrange the seating, constantly wanting to make the entire presentation less formal and more personal for everybody involved. He went to great lengths bringing anybody at the back of the congregation up to the front and filled up any available space so nobody would miss out. He also wanted to disband his microphone which he felt was hindering his communication but we convinced him otherwise so he continued with a less bulky headset microphone. After tweaking some technical issues with the laptop and projector finally the photographic extravaganza got underway.
Jeremy proceeded to tell us the history of the castle from its construction in 1450 through to the unsuccessful British attack on Kilcoe in the 1600’s and the transfer of ownership from local farmer James Caverly to Edward Samuel who eventually sold it to Mr. Irons. The presentation entailed a slide show of roughly 75-100 photos taken by Jeremy and with each slide he gave us a detailed narrative of the refurbishment process. The Oscar winning actor spoke with such energy and vitality about this project that he would stop on occasion reminiscing about certain people or characters who toiled on the castle. He rented a nearby field from a local farmer to create a storage yard for the scaffolding he bought, the crane he bought, and all the other necessary machinery he bought. Which the farmer only asked for ‘peanuts’ as payment as he said himself. He continued with many stories that only he would know.
For instance he told us that one day he gathered every worker on site and brought them to the top of the castle where he got the local Catholic priest to bless the project because he said if anybody got hurt during its refurbishment that it would tarnish his future home and diminish his love for the archaic building.
His passion for this project was amazing as he put astonishing detail into each phase of the construction process. Jeremy bought old steel cart wheels to straighten and make door hinges, he bought Irish oak timber which had been culled in the nearby Fota island forest to hand cut into load bearing joists and beams for the roof. He had every stone of the old castle power washed and re-pointed with mortar to a hands’ depth, he employed two beret-wearing French stone masons to cut arched windows from solid pieces of limestone. He explained his problems with eradicating dampness and his fixation with letting a building ‘breathe’.
A German man and woman wandered into Kilcoe Castle looking for some work, the woman a stone carver and her partner a carpenter who were part of a craftsman guild society looking to earn their way around Europe. Jeremy obliged and gave them board and accommodation along with a weekly wage, the woman carved a detailed head of the virgin Mary which Jeremy mounted on the east side of the castle. He explained that Catholic churches place the altar always situated at the east end of a church so it was only right that he mounted the bust of the virgin Mary on east facing side of Kilcoe.
To complete the refurbishment he bought items from an array of local and international sellers, bedroom pillows and lamps from India, quality floor rugs from Morocco some quarried stone and timber from England, the list is endless but Jeremy can recall each item and where it was bought.
This presentation was extraordinary in its opportunity to see Jeremy in full flow of passion for something he holds so dearly. His booming English voice and charismatic descriptive words along with his animated hand gestures gave us all wanting more after the minuscule two hours.
Question time afterwards gave some surprising results with the Oscar winner telling us that he received no grant from the Irish government and his disappointment with the poor system in Ireland for protection and restoration of ancient ruins.
Jeremy was very nice to pose for photographs after the presentation having a quiet word with each person.
A great event from the Irish Georgian society.
David Morrissey
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West Cork cruising out of its league
Jeremy Irons’s boat – Willing Lass
Sunday, August 11, 2013
IT MIGHT seem bit of paradox, but the best way to see Ireland’s raw, elemental natural beauty is to leave the place behind you, in your wake.
By Tommy Barker
You don’t have to go far, mind, to see sheer splendour: a half a mile, a few miles, or in nautical terms, a league or two off the island’s coastline will do in many cases, opening up a fresh, new, waterborne perspective — new horizons, literally.
World traveller, actor and sailing fanatic Jeremy Irons has rightly described his home patch of water along the West Cork coast as “a promised land for leisure sailors”, raving about the amazing scenery, the setting and most often, the solitude.
And, Irons calls for more shore-based supports to build marine activity and visitors, such as marinas and berths to fill in the gaps on the shoreline. Other sailors and old salts note that the country’s dramatic west coast and islands also need marinas to lure and shelter sailors from near and far.
For such a small country, we have unfathomable riches of coastline, especially if you follow every indent of shoreline, visit every cove, peek in a cave, land on an island, balm on beach, whale or birdwatch, or scale a small cliff or promontory upon landing.
As a nation though, we are only very slowly rediscovering our maritime heritage: you can tell from the surfboards and kayaks on roof-racks, and from dinghies and RIBs on trailers behind family cars or jeeps that we’re taking to the rivers, lakes, estuaries and ocean waves in ever-increasing numbers.
Cork’s Ocean to City event has brought hundreds of previous landlubbers to the Lee, and it’s a racing certainty that the recently-discovered love of being afloat will in turn bring people now from the city to the oceans, in return.
Many of these fast-growing, burgeoning and thrilling sports literally just skim the surface of possibilities: there’s a way to go further and deeper. It’s cruising. And it doesn’t just have to be for the elite, or the wealthy.
Essentially, cruising (stop sniggering at the back!) is travelling by boat, either by motor or sail, and the term generally refers to trips lasting several days at least — during which you can cover lots of ground by water, if you get the drift. Sailors have the option of using marinas and established ports bringing trade to bars, shops and restaurants, or just dropping anchor at will at a beauty spot, or a mix of both.
Cruising has long been popular in Ireland, gathering pace in the 1960s, even more so in the noughties, and now is having a bit of a halcyon era, reckons Gail McAllister of the Irish Sail Association, who was cruise co-ordinator for the Gathering Cruise 2013.
That two-week Gathering event unfortunately hit the news for all the wrong reasons as the Dutch Tall Ship and training vessel the four-master Astrid hit the rocks outside Oysterhaven.
Fortunately, all 30 aboard the Astrid were rescued in jig-time, thanks to super-prompt and reassuring attendance by Kinsale and Courtmacsherry RNLI and other emergency services: the cruise for the other 50 boats was, however, incident free, and largely blessed with great weather too.
At any one time, about 80% of the cruising craft along our scenic shores will be Irish-owned and based, and visitors from further afield typically are British, or French, while Germans sailors who come here tend to charter boats from Irish ports, says the ISA’s Gail McAllister who is based in Adrigole in West Cork.
She said the event had put solid legacy foundations down to build Ireland as a cruising destination, with considerable international interest built up for future flotilla cruises. One attraction of the Gathering Cruise was safety in numbers, companionable company, and the chance to try unexplored waters for many of the 50 boats’ sailors. Many of the skippers had never before been beyond a port or two from their home bases: “they felt a little bit safer, a little bit more secure”, McAllister notes.
The event will build over future summers, with a large flotilla gathering envisaged every four years, and smaller, annual ones as well. Interest garnered for the 2013 maiden flotilla cruise was considerable, followed internationally on logs, blogs and on Facebook.
A UK couple, Dave and Carole Winwood from Poole last sailed off the Irish south-west coast 15 years ago, revisiting with a friend Phil Bewl, on a six-week voyage that now sees them Galway-bound — a change from their traditional sailing waters like the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Brittany and Vigo in Spain. “It’s been great fun and we’re spreading the word about Ireland,” they promised.
According to John Leahy, commodore of the Cruising Club of Ireland, the typical age of those who go cruising is from 40 to 70, an age profile dictated to in part by the cost of boats, and the time involved, though crews can be of any age, and voyages of any duration.
The Gathering saw one sailor, Dubliner Betty Dunne, celebrating her 80th birthday on the water and on shore at Oysterhaven.
Boats can typically cost €25,000 upwards, but more basic ones can be bought for the price of a second-hand car: €5,000 can see you out cruising in safety. Those without boats can join Irish charters or sailing courses, at prices from €500 to €1,000 — competitive with the likes of Greek or Croatian charters.
Not only are more people than ever making trips up and down the incredible coastline, whale and dolphin watching en route, they are served by a bigger than ever choice of support services, from marinas and pontoons to useful, cheery yellow ‘visitor moorings’ for casual arrivals. They are aided and assisted by GPS and other electronic navigation and weather-informing aids, while a potentially life-saving smartphone app, a position monitoring aid called ‘safetrx’ has just been launched with Irish Coastguard back-up.
The Gathering Cruise finished up in Dingle last weekend, with seven of the 50 boats that started in Dun Laoghaire then facing either a return trip or a continuation of a round-Ireland voyage. One crew that had decided to stay in Kinsale and not chance the Mizen rounding instead got a bus to Cork, hired a car and drove to Dingle for the final wrap party, part-sponsored by Dingle Brewery Company, and their Tom Crean beer. Tom Crean? Now, didn’t he really push the boat out?
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
Jeremy Irons is interviewed in the August 2011 issue of Saga Magazine.
‘I don’t think I will ever be that famous. I don’t think it’s good for an actor – I’d rather be with my family’
Jeremy Irons
He’s about to star as arch-villain Cardinal Borgia in a new TV series, but the charismatic and likeable Jeremy Irons reveals that these days he is more concerned about another role – that of being a father.
Words: Gabrielle Donnelly
There is never an inkling of a doubt, when you are in conversation with Jeremy Irons, that you are in the presence of a Thespian. For starters, there’s the look – the swept-back salt and pepper hair, the darkly dramatic features highlighted by the knotted scarf, the huge, elegant hands waving gracefully in the air.
Then there’s the voice – resonant and beautifully modulated, the carefully honed instrument of a meticulously responsible owner. But most of all there’s the conversation. It swoops and swerves as it encompasses fabulously famous people, glamorous geographical byways, positively polychromatic opinions and some truly gorgeous anachronisms. (‘I am not,’ he announced to me once, ‘the sort of disapproving father who sends his sons telegrams.’) Telegrams!
He is never, ever, dull.
In a world where conformity is increasingly, and dispiritingly, the norm, Jeremy is an unapologetically unreconstructed luvvie who will
as happily give you his views on the current state of organised religion (‘I’m disappointed in it and I’ll tell you why…’) as reflect on playing Cardinal Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI, in the Sky TV series The Borgias – ‘it’s the vulnerability that made him interesting to me.’
We are chatting on a sunny morning at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills; he’s in LA for some promotional activity, but has a pad in New York and five other homes, including a pink castle in Ireland. Most of the time, he and his wife, the actress Sinead Cusack, flit between the Oxfordshire town of Watlington and the castle near Ballydehob, in County Cork.
‘I’m a jobbing actor,’ he says with some pride. ‘I always have been. I do theatre, television, movies; I’ll do anything anybody suggests if it tickles my fancy. I mean, I like to be paid, but if someone offers me a good character in a good story, I really don’t mind where it’s played.
‘I’ve done a couple of big-budget movies – a Die Hard – and I’ve done a couple of… what would you call them? Sort of… dragony pictures, you know?’ He sniffs at the memory of 2000’s Dungeons & Dragons.
‘Of course, doing a blockbuster is useful because people who make movies think that people who are in movies that make a lot of money will make their movies more money. It’s a clearly unproven thing, but that’s what accountants believe. For me, it’s more about the fun I have on a shoot. On the whole, I prefer smaller-budget films – they’re faster to make. With Die Hard, I’d wait for days while a ship was turned around so that a car could fall on it!’
The full article can be read in the August 2011 issue of Saga Magazine.
Jeremy Irons was on hand for the 2009 Ballydehob Summer Festival in Ireland on Sunday 9 August. He hosted the Official Opening Ceremony and attended the festival opening parade.
Ballydehob Summer Festival 2009 Opening
Ballydehob Summer Festival 2009
jeremyirons.net
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