Colin Farrell receives high praise following sweet moment with young fan
Colin Farrell has been lauded for being a 'gentleman doing us Irish proud,' after a sweet moment when he met a young fan went viral.
The interaction came during the week with the young fan, Nino, and his mum meeting Colin 'up close and personal' while he was filming his latest movie.
Nino's mum shared the interaction online, with the video accumulating more than 300,000 views in just two days. Colin Farrell has been lauded for being a 'gentleman doing us Irish proud,' after a sweet moment when he met a young fan went viral. Pic: TikTok
'When you get to meet Colin Farrell up close in personal and talk to him while he shot his music, such a gentleman,' the caption read.
The video starts with Nino's mum telling Colin her son wants to speak to him for 'just one second,' with the Dubliner instantly getting out of his car and introducing himself.
'I watched a lot of your movies like Pay Phone [Phone Booth],' the young fan shared, with Colin thanking him before asking what his name is. @sonnygirlla When you get to meet Colin Farrell up close in personal and talk to him while he shot his movie such a gentleman @ColinFarrell #f#foryoupagef#fypc#colinfarrellm#moviesetc#celebrityc#colinfarrell ♬ original sound – Sonnygirl
'How you doing? How's school going, man?' Colin asked after a hug, with the young fan's mum noting they were 'having a little tough time with it.'
Colin said: 'School is tough. They were the worst days of my life, for what it's worth. Life only gets better, man.'
Colin then learned that the young fan was an aspiring musician and encouraged the youngster to 'stay at it.' Colin Farrell. Pic:for Maui Film Festival
'I promise you life gets better and better,' Colin said, shaking his hand.
Social media users flocked to the comments with everyone branding the Penguin star a 'gentleman.'
One said: 'You can't fake nice. What a wonderful human!' Hilariously, other commenters were taken about by the Irish mans… ehm, Irish accent. Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock
Another wrote: 'Many of us Irish are easy to approach, it's always great to see the famous ones proving it.'
A third commented: 'A gentleman doing us Irish proud.'
Others pointed out the young fans error with Nino's mum clarifying that he was 'so nervous' leading to the slip up.
A response said: 'Colin would understand cause here in Ireland we never called the 'phone booth' we always said we were going down to the 'payphone.'
Hilariously, other commenters were taken about by the Irish mans… ehm, Irish accent.
'Am I the only one that didn't know he had an Irish accent!!!' one wrote, 'My mind is blown today!!!'
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AR Jorgensen was married twice, to the late Patricia Murray ('a very talented artist and designer' with whom he had two children, Lara and Isolin), and to Sonia Rogers. He established his own salon in his early twenties, at one point employing nearly 50 people, so the party lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, often associated with the international fashion scene, was never a priority for him. 'I was committed to what I was doing,' he states, 'and was very particular about how items were made. I mean, when I left the Grafton Academy, I knew how to cut a pattern. So I applied to a lovely ladies' shop (Nicholas O'Dwyer) in Suffolk Street, saying what I had done, and how I admired the shop, and the window was very beautiful. 'I got a very curt reply back saying, 'We don't employ men'. Around that time, I'd become an Irish citizen, as our family had been here five years, and my father had a very good solicitor who got it through promptly for me, as I wanted to be part of the NAIDA (National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association) fashion show, and you had to be an Irish citizen to do it. 'In any event, I took part in the fashion show, as did the shop I just mentioned, and I won second prize in the coat section and, lo and behold, the shop owner came and bought my coat for his shop! Apparently, the coat sold the same day it was put in the shop, so he asked me could I make another one. By then, I had a little workshop in Dame Street, so I said yes. 'I didn't really know much about couture-making, and that's why I wanted to work with him, so I made him another of that coat, and another – in the end, I made six! When he came back looking for another one, I said, 'I'm sorry, but I don't have time'. That was because my own little business had started doing well, and I had my own clients, and those ladies always gave me very good publicity and spread the word. 'Nicholas O'Dwyer then rang me up and said he'd like to take me to lunch, so we met and he offered me a job! He said he'd offer me 10 pounds a week, and I pushed it to 11. Young architects, for instance, were getting only five pounds a week at the time. 'A Jewish company in Dublin had closed down, and they had absolutely superb staff who used to make clothes for the Curragh and the Castle. Nicholas had got all those workers in – quite a cute move – so I learnt from them. I already knew about pattern-cutting, but by the time I left after two-and-a-half years, I had learnt about how to assemble beautiful clothes. 'Two people came with me from there and then, gradually, all his people came with me as they saw my business and reputation growing. Then, one day, he was bankrupt. He should have kept me, but he didn't. I think he subsequently moved to Australia…' Ib Jorgensen. AR There were some strange and exhilarating moments along the way. Ib was once part of a fashion show that took place on a jumbo jet… 'Yes,' he shrugs. 'It was mainly fashion and other media who were at it. There were some agents, too, and plenty of guests. About 10 designers, including me, were commissioned to make something, using a fabric I normally wouldn't use. But it was a great success, in that it got a lot of publicity at the time, which was the primary objective of it.' Among the famous people to wear Ib Jorgensen's designs were Helen Hayes, the American actress and first woman to win the coveted career EGOT (an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony), and Irish acting legend Siobhan McKenna. President Mary Robinson also wore Jorgensen creations while President of Ireland. 'Myself and Pat Crowley (designer) made her items for her tours abroad,' he explains. 'She had a very good figure and fitted into model's clothes. She has a lot of my clothes and she looks bloody good in them. You might send her five garments and you'd get two back, or something like that, and she, of course, got a discount because we were happy to make these items for her to wear in notable visits to places like Buckingham Palace. She was a good President. She was the first woman in the role, and was internationally recognised and accepted.' In 1975, and again in 1986, Jorgensen designed separate Aer Lingus uniforms for the all-female team of 'hostesses' or 'stewardesses', as they were known at the time. 'I found that very interesting,' he recalls. 'We used Magee fabrics. There was always a committee of about 12 or 14 girls, and I'd present sketches, and then they'd choose something, and I'd make a model outfit for it. I remember there was one young lady, and she questioned everything I did, and I eventually said to her, 'There's 14 of you here and I can't just design it for you!' But I was very honoured to design the uniforms.' He designed the first Irish Army Women's Service Corps uniform in 1980. 'That was another first for me. It came about as I'd already done the Aer Lingus uniforms, so one thing led to another.' It was unusual for them to ask a highly regarded couturier like yourself to do it. 'It was!' he smiles. 'And, in cases like that, I had to do a lot of research on the fabrics and styles of military uniforms, and what was traditional in terms of finding a new look, because you were restricted in the design element. Once I had created the pattern, and I had made the initial one for them and for the publicity shots, they then put it into production. It was lovely to be recognised, doing things like that.' Moving to London was perhaps his most exciting adventure. His designs were prominent in outlets like Harrods and Liberty in London, amongst other high-end outlets, and he had his own shop on Sloane Street. 'Anne Heseltine (wife of the Tory grandee Michael Heseltine) was a client, and then also a friend,' he recounts, 'and she walked into my shop one day and said, 'Would you be interested in doing a fashion show, in the Guildhall?' I said I'd be delighted. That really made my name in London, because she was on a board – there were about 20 of them – and there were up to 800 in the Guildhall. It was a breakthrough for me because I attracted a lot of those top, top people as clients. Of course, I stopped doing Harrods and the other outlets once I had my own shop there.' Ib Jorgensen. AR Jorgensen has never felt the temptation to move into high-street fashion, like Paul Costelloe, for instance, whose apparel is also available in shops like Dunnes Stores. 'No, but Paul has done very well with it. I like him, he's a nice guy,' he says. 'He's been a great success, in that he's done a top job there. I did have a secondary collection, a boutique collection, which was made for me here in Dublin, which was cut from my patterns and using my fabric. But I was never interested in going the direction Paul went.' 'You'd be influenced by so many things, films, exhibitions and shows,' he avers, 'and by whatever other people did, particularly what I'd see when I'd go to Paris, Rome and London – the V&A there was fantastic. In a way, everything is an influence. 'I liked Givenchy. I liked the simplicity. And Missoni. The person I admired most for his development of fashion was Cristóbal Balenciaga. It was quite extraordinary the way he could build the fabric like a house. Often, he'd create things without a design, which was quite extraordinary. Beautiful clothes. There was one time when he and Givenchy only showed their collections to one or two American buyers, and that was because designs were being copied overnight.' 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NEW YORK – OCTOBER 5: The movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's', directed by Blake Edwards and based on the novel by Truman Capote. Seen here, Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly during the opening sequence, pausing in front of Tiffany's jewelry store in New York City. Initial theatrical release October 5, 1961. Screen capture. Paramount Pictures. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) 'Yes, it was the shape of things to come. It's actually extraordinary how ahead they were with that scene. It's such a common thing now, everybody walking around with a takeaway coffee, and so on. Amazing.' 'I admired Irene Gilbert the most. She was a true couturier. She knew how to cut a pattern and drape a dress.' It was Thurles-born Gilbert who, in 1962, formed the Irish Haute Couture Group, with Jorgensen, Clodagh Phipps and Neillí Mulcahy. 'Interestingly, towards the end of her time in Dublin, she rang me up and asked me to meet her,' he says. 'So, I did, and she bought me a drink – I think I had a gin and tonic in those days, now it's vodka! – and she asked me straight: 'Will you buy my business?' 'So, I told her that I wouldn't have the cash to do so and I didn't need to buy it anyway, because my business was growing and I needed more workers as it was. She obviously thought she wouldn't lose out by selling to me, so it was a great compliment. I liked Irene. I don't think she ever sold it, I think she closed it. She'd just had enough.' Jorgensen recently encountered Clodagh Phipps, who was once based on South Anne Street, where the Ib Jorgensen Gallery is now located. 'Clodagh was a fine designer,' Ib says. 'She went into interior design in a big way in New York and has been very successful.' Ib Jorgensen still keeps an eye on the Irish fashion design sector. 'I listen to the news, of course, and it was good to see the Irish designers being so well received during the recent London Fashion Week. In terms of the international sector, what I find quite difficult is that so many of the big fashion houses have been bought over and don't do the clothes that they once did, but they have the famous brand name.' Of course, over Ib's long lifetime, there have been seismic social and technological changes in everyday communications, from computerisation to mobile phones. Phone boxes, it seems, are a thing of the past! 'Yes, indeed, and always being so available is a huge change in my time,' he says. 'That said, I have a mobile phone, but I don't like them! They've changed the way of living, because you can't go out without one. It's ridiculous! I'm not very good with them, but I have to do it. I don't have a landline at home anymore.' How did he deal with the Covid pandemic period and the lockdowns? 'That was shocking,' he admits, 'but I coped with it. I went for walks every day. The thing is, you couldn't fight it, so you just had to get on with things. One has to be positive in such circumstances.' For a period, Jorgensen opened a highly regarded fine art and design gallery in Molesworth St, Dublin, which moved location several times subsequently. Having retired from fashion in 1994, he then closed the gallery during the pandemic. 'I was tired of opening up in the morning, which was a factor at that time,' he explains. 'And, also, it's a fact that the auction houses are taking most of the custom, so you have to be on your toes. But I've come to the conclusion that it's good for you.' The Ib Jorgensen Gallery re-opened on South Anne St in 2024, with Jorgensen ever-present inside alongside his daughter Lara and mid-century European glass expert, Deirdre Foley Woods. The gallery specialises in '20th Century and Contemporary Art, both Irish and Continental, as well as Mid-Century Glass'. 'I decided to take part in a design show in the RDS and Deirdre helped me with that,' he recalls, 'and I liked the idea of coming back as I missed it. It's a very personal business, a relationship business, so that show encouraged me to come back. This shop in South Anne Street was available, so I signed up for a year. It's tiring, but I'm enjoying it. 'There are some artists I'm supporting in this gallery by showing their works here and selling them, and also other items I invest in myself. I don't admit to putting anything on the wall that I don't like!' Ib Jorgensen. AR Over Ib Jorgensen's 90 years, he has seen Ireland develop in many ways, not least the transition from an insular Catholic-dominated society to today's more open country. 'The thing is, Ireland has done well and I'm very happy to be living here,' he says. 'I think it's one of the safest places one could be in – unless you walk around Dublin city centre at midnight (a reference to a recent murder in South Anne St, near his gallery). But one has to be aware that violence can happen anywhere, and you have to look out for it. I respect Ireland. And I know it's up and down with the politics, and so on, but we've survived the ride. 'The readjustment that the Catholic Church has undergone here has been huge – and a very good thing. It was so dominant when I came to Ireland first that I recall being described as non-Catholic. We found that strange because in Denmark, you don't discuss religion, but here in Ireland, it was on top of everything. But that has disappeared now.' 'The world has changed drastically since Trump has come into power for a second time. He has more confidence, too,' he says. 'I think it was absolutely shocking the way two world powers (Russia and the US) were talking about another country (Ukraine). Shocking. That would not have happened under any other President. And what he has been saying about Gaza, building a 'Riviera of the Middle East'! He seems to be completely uncontrollable. 'He comes out with completely stupid, impractical, unworkable so-called 'solutions'. He is very, very destructive. I've been around a long time, and I don't remember anybody like him.' Ukrainians have an expression: 'he's like 'a monkey with a grenade'. 'That's a very good description. I like that!' he laughs. • Ib Jorgensen: A Fashion Retrospective is located in the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts & History at Collins Barracks, in Dublin. Admission is free, check for opening hours. The Jorgensen Gallery is at 21a Anne Street South, Dublin 2.
