Latest news with #Irishness
Extra.ie
22-07-2025
- Business
- Extra.ie
Meet the designer who's making old Irish punts into incredible jewellery
More brands both home and abroad are embracing being Irish — and are showing off with impeccable designs. Between brands such as Pellador and Emporium having pop up shops and selling out their clothes in minutes, the Claddagh ring becoming incredibly popular both at home and abroad, and even Guinness having collaborations with several clothing brands, Irishness has never been cooler. Today's top videos STORY CONTINUES BELOW However, one young man from Dublin has begun his jewellery making business with items that are probably lying in a junk drawer in your house right now — Irish pound coins. Ciaran Gibson began designing watches using Irish pound coins, under his brand Lame Squared. Pic: Lame2/Instagram Since the country switched to the Euro in 2002, the Punt has become pretty much obsolete bar a few people who want to collect them. But for Ciaran Gibson, he's breathing new life into the coins; making them into analogue watches with the coins as the faces. The Dubliner, who studied manufacturing and design engineering in college, began tinkering with Casio watches before moving on to analogue; and found the perfect face for the watch in the old coins. 'Before [college] I always wanted to be an inventor,' Ciaran told 'So I did manufacturing and design engineering in college and was working with a company that made air conditioning units for data centres. It wasn't very fulfilling,' he joked. Ciaran said that he began making the watches just over a year ago, with him beginning to sell them earlier this year. Pic: Lame2/Instagram After being able to leave the job, Ciaran began taking inventing and designing products seriously; and after creating a workbench, he wanted to initially design a chair; but he came up with the idea for the watches while designing said chair. 'I was always interested in watches; I would collect vintage Casios, the digital watches, and I really just taught myself [the manufacturing process],' he explained. 'Obviously, I had somewhat of a mechanical aptitude in general, but it was a huge learning curve. 'I would buy 10, 20 cheap ones online and just absolutely destroy them, seeing what I could take off and what I can't… I really just taught myself through trial and error.' Pic: Lame2/Instagram As for how the idea of the Punt design came about, he had a fairly simple one: people just like the coins. 'So many people love the Irish pounds. They're all over the place, in people's homes, and people who collect them would put them in a little binder or something to have them on display, so [the idea] was for someone to have a cool Irish coin and be able to show it off.' While collecting vintage coins can be a bit hard, the Irish punt is floating around in abundance; including abroad, where Ciaran told us that he managed to find one from the very first Irish Free State mint. 'At the start I was marketing them as 'get them for your birth year, or anniversary' or whatever — I'm trying to steer away from that because it's actually quite hard to find a particular year,' he joked. 'There's a fella in George's Street that sells the coins, there are a few knick-knack shops that sell them, pretty much every home in Ireland has them, I get a few off adverts… 'I was in Bruges (the town, not the film) over the summer and there was this antique market in the town square,' he continued. 'I was searching through, searching through, and I found a copper coin that [was minted] the very first year of minting in the Irish Free State. Now there's still plenty around the place, but it was still very cool to find.' Pic: Lame2/Instagram From there, he started selling the watches under his brand, which he calls Lame2 (lame squared) — and Ciaran said that thanks to his parents' entrepreneurial knowledge, he hopes to have a stall lined up at upcoming markets, including during Christmas. 'I started selling them only recently, but was making them for the past year and a bit,' he said. 'But I was still wary of pushing out products that were fairly expensive, I was like 'I can't be selling those if I have even a shred of doubt that they're reliable and worth that much. The product has to back itself up. 'It was when I wore one of the first ones I made for 10 months and I'd trot around with it every single day, in the rain — now it's not really waterproof — but I had zero problems whatsoever. So that's when I was like 'okay, now's the time to pull the trigger, make orders.' 'The short term [goal] is Christmas,' Ciaran told 'Get a pop-up shop in a popular spot during Christmas, start selling there, and then down the line? Experiment with other stuff — not necessarily the fashion, but see where I can take it. Just keep making stuff.' Ciaran's brand Lame2 can be followed on Instagram, @
Extra.ie
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Did you know that Billie Eilish actually has Irish roots?
Music sensation Billie Eilish is getting ready to entertain her Irish fans and some of you may or may not know that this is something of a homecoming for her. While we've a tendancy of claiming anyone with a whiff of Irishness, the Bad Guy star's full name is actually Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell, and as the surname might suggest, she does have Irish heritage. Billie's name 'Baird' is from her mother Maggie Baird and her father is Patrick O'Connell, with both parents having roots in Ireland and also in Scotland. US singer-songwriter Billie Eilish accepts the Song Of The Year award for What Was I Made For? at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards Pic: Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images Billie previously spoke of her Irish heritage on Today FM ahead of her first Irish show, saying: 'My whole life I've been told by my parents that, y'know, I'm Irish and Scottish and I'm like 'Okay, yay!' 'I'm mean, it's cool, but I just didn't have anything to base it on – never been to Ireland, y'know, I didn't know anything really. And it's been actually really cool to come here.' The two-time Oscar winner is bringing her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to Dublin on July 26 and 27, having wowed Irish audiences back in 2022 with her Happier Than Ever tour. Billie Eilish and Andrew Scott. Pic: Michael Buckner/Golden Globes 2024/Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images However, something which surprised some of her concert goers in the UK is the fact she turned the arena vegan by banning meat products from the venue. Fans were surprised to learn that London's O2 Arena had a fully vegan menu for sale to concert-goers, which included a peri-peri halloumi wrap, chipotle tacos, pancakes and pizza. The What Was I Made For singer was raised vegetarian and switched to veganism aged 12, way before it became one of the go-to lifestyles.
Irish Independent
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Four Letters of Love review: Irish actors who are unable to do Irish accents is becoming a worrying trend
We're in the Dublin of the early 1970s, where a job in the civil service is a thing to be clutched tightly. But a shaft of sunlight falling on his desk has led to William having a major epiphany – he's going to pack up a few things and move to the west coast to be an itinerant landscape artist. It's the kind of madly romantic gesture towards a meaningful existence that colours this long-mooted adaptation of Niall Williams's bestselling 1997 debut novel. The laws of poetry, love and art are nourishment enough for heart and soul and institutions such as Church and State only put a downer on things. Who could argue. The decision leaves Nicholas and Bette in the lurch and fending for themselves while their breadwinner goes off on his elaborate flight of fancy. Across the water from where William eventually sets up his easel, an island glistens off the western seaboard. It is home to the Gore household comprised of cultured, bohemian parents Margaret and Muiris (Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne), their breezy and beautiful daughter Isabel (Ann Skelly) and son Sean (Dónal Finn). The Gore household is picture-perfect, you might say, an image of Irishness in tune with dancing, red-haired cailíní, quaintly cluttered kitchen dressers, and wee drams to wet the throat beside an evening fire. The Hibernian paradise undergoes a crack, however, when Sean is in an accident just as Isabel is readying herself to leave for convent school. She tears herself away nonetheless, only to fall foul of the nuns and run away with a roguish cad (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Isabel and Nicholas; Nicholas and Isabel. One is embarking on an adventure into early adulthood, romance and self-discovery, the other still reeling from the fallout to his family life by his father's sudden wilful abandonment. Their situations couldn't be less alike and yet they are, we're assured, bound together. Director Polly Steele's take on the novel – adapted for the screen by the Clare-based author himself – presents the two strands as being on a parallel journey towards a head-spinning (and predictably gooey) inevitability. Their pre-destination is signposted with the subtlety of a billboard until Nicholas embarks west in search of William and catches a glimpse of Isabel on the local bus and the direction of his young life suddenly shifts. The lush prophesying sweep of the narrative, the coincidences and serendipities and fateful mishaps, will be too sickly sweet for viewers of a cynical bent. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more Add to this the way it tiptoes along the fringes of 'stage Irish', flirting with a version of pre-1990s Ireland (pretty, cute, benign and sweetly befuddled), and Four Letters of Love's setting is almost outlandish when watched from seats on this island. And that might just be the whole idea. Right around the moment that you scratch your head at the shaky tenor of Brosnan's brogue (Irish actors who are unable to do Irish accents is becoming a worrying trend), a suspicion strikes you. Much like its source novel, Steele's film might also speak to a pre-destination: that of a love affair with cinemagoers beyond these shores. Sweeter than The Banshees of Inisherin, more fanciful than Brooklyn, this is about as unashamedly sentimental and syrupy as it gets, and those in search of a gentle, easy-on-the-eyes swoon will forgive the odd accent wobble, the patches of abrupt editing, or the clumsy dialogue replacement splices. Cinematographer Damien Elliottt and production designer John Leslie get that fantasy-realist netherworld just right. Cast members do what they must – Brosnan gives enigmatic scans of the wind-swept horizon; Byrne hunches over love poems and grunts good-naturedly at the youthful carry-on. Regardless of what region this film is experienced in, the star of the show is Bonham Carter, whose brilliant quips stop the whole thing from disappearing up its own Blarney. For an outing that applies such a honeyed filter to the Irish condition, it is her character's cranky benevolence and perfectly timed eye-rolls that might just be the most authentic national traits on show here.
Sunday World
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Comedian Peter McGann on how Irish comedy has come a long way from gags about the ‘gas Irish'
Wicklow-born Peter says: 'The Irishness of Tommy Tiernan is brilliant but in a really good way, like it's from the earth Viral comedian Peter McGann says Irish comedy has come a long way since bad jokes about the stereotypical drunken Irishman. Naming Tommy Tiernan and D'Unbelievables as some of the country's finest funnymen ever, Peter said mindless gags about the 'gas Irish' and the 'locked Paddy' have mostly been wiped from the comedy stage. Wicklow-born Peter says: 'The Irishness of Tommy Tiernan is brilliant but in a really good way, like it's from the earth. 'I think people learned the wrong lessons from Jon Kenny and Pat Shortt. 'Like you know the jokes, 'do you remember this used to happen in school?' And everyone's like, ha-ha. Or 'remember fizzy seven up, ha-ha', that's not funny. 'I think that even Tommy railed against the Irish aren't we gas. 'Or the, 'I came home, I was so drunk, I put the rashers in the toaster. Tommy he was making fun of that, like kind of back slap kind of thing, he was so right.' Peter is the latest guest on this week's episode of the culinary podcast, Under the Grill, with Kevin Dundon and Caoimhe Young. The Dublin-based dad-of-one continues: 'I loved Tommy Tiernan in the early years. 'To this day I'll catch myself and think 'jeez, that sounds like something Tommy would say', just in how it is phrased, not how funny it is. 'I do get inspiration from other comedians; I like the League of Gentlemen, and I've watched that a million times. 'It's stuff that I just soaked into me as a kid, and then it's kind of coming out unconsciously. There's very few of us really that comedy just comes to us completely, naturally.' Peter picked a delicious seafood chowder – served in a bowl made from sourdough – for chef Kevin Dundon to cook up in the podcast kitchen. Peter says: 'I haven't had it in years, but I feasted on seafood chowder every second day on what I now remember it as the best summer of my life. 'I was in college in Galway that summer, I was chasing a girl who is now my wife, and there used to be a stall in Galway selling seafood chowder in a bread bowl. I love fish, any kind of fish and a good chowder is heaven.' Peter has had a string of acting roles, with his latest being in Sky's Small Town, Big Story with Mad Men star Christina Hendricks, and created and directed by Chris O'Dowd. Peter, who plays a schoolteacher who is having an affair, says: 'It was a beautifully shot series, and I loved working on it. I can only hope there will be another series. 'I feel like TV shows these days there can be like five years between a season on all the big ones. So, who knows?.' In Small Town, Big Story a Hollywood production rolls into a small Irish town and throws the spotlight on a secret that's been kept hidden since the eve of the millennium. 'Chris O'Dowd was bang on. I got to know him on the shoot, and he was just gentle, and like such a good leader as well. He got everyone's blood pumping to make something good. 'It was a passion project for him, and I think it came off on the screen. He had a vision, and it works.' Watch Under the Grill on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Caoimhe Young, Kevin Dundon, and Peter McGann Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 15th 2025
Irish Independent
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘We've come a long way from gags about the Irish lad who was so hungover he put the rashers in the toaster'
Naming Tommy Tiernan and D'Unbelievables as some of the country's finest funnymen ever, Peter said mindless gags about the 'gas Irish' and the 'locked Paddy' have mostly been wiped from the comedy stage. Wicklow-born Peter says: 'The Irishness of Tommy Tiernan is brilliant but in a really good way, like it's from the earth. 'I think people learned the wrong lessons from Jon Kenny and Pat Shortt. 'Like you know the jokes, 'do you remember this used to happen in school?' And everyone's like, ha-ha. Or 'remember fizzy seven up, ha-ha', that's not funny. 'I think that even Tommy railed against the Irish aren't we gas. 'Or the, 'I came home, I was so drunk, I put the rashers in the toaster. Tommy he was making fun of that, like kind of back slap kind of thing, he was so right.' Peter is the latest guest on this week's episode of the culinary podcast, Under the Grill, with Kevin Dundon and Caoimhe Young. The Dublin-based dad-of-one continues: 'I loved Tommy Tiernan in the early years. 'To this day I'll catch myself and think 'jeez, that sounds like something Tommy would say', just in how it is phrased, not how funny it is. 'I do get inspiration from other comedians; I like the League of Gentlemen, and I've watched that a million times. 'It's stuff that I just soaked into me as a kid, and then it's kind of coming out unconsciously. There's very few of us really that comedy just comes to us completely, naturally.' Peter picked a delicious seafood chowder – served in a bowl made from sourdough – for chef Kevin Dundon to cook up in the podcast kitchen. Peter says: 'I haven't had it in years, but I feasted on seafood chowder every second day on what I now remember it as the best summer of my life. 'I was in college in Galway that summer, I was chasing a girl who is now my wife, and there used to be a stall in Galway selling seafood chowder in a bread bowl. I love fish, any kind of fish and a good chowder is heaven.' Peter has had a string of acting roles, with his latest being in Sky's Small Town, Big Story with Mad Men star Christina Hendricks, and created and directed by Chris O'Dowd. Peter, who plays a schoolteacher who is having an affair, says: 'It was a beautifully shot series, and I loved working on it. I can only hope there will be another series. 'I feel like TV shows these days there can be like five years between a season on all the big ones. So, who knows?.' In Small Town, Big Story a Hollywood production rolls into a small Irish town and throws the spotlight on a secret that's been kept hidden since the eve of the millennium. 'Chris O'Dowd was bang on. I got to know him on the shoot, and he was just gentle, and like such a good leader as well. He got everyone's blood pumping to make something good. 'It was a passion project for him, and I think it came off on the screen. He had a vision, and it works.' Watch Under the Grill on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
