Jessie Buckley - Pride of Killarney

Jessie Our

THE PRIDE OF KILLARNEY

Oscar nominated actress Jessie Buckley has become hot Hollywood property – and with every role she takes on - is wowing audiences across the globe.

| By Michelle Crean

This year Jessie – who hails from Muckross in Killarney - was not only nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress playing the role of Leda in ‘The Lost Daughter’ but was up for a BAFTA award too. She secured an Olivier award for her role in London musical ‘Caberet’ and is rocking it with a new 12-track album 'For All Our Days That Tear The Heart' with award-winning British producer and musician Bernard Butler. Jessie rose to fame following her appearance on the 2008 BBC show ‘I’d Do Anything’ hosted by Graham Norton where she came second place. Andrew Lloyd Webber, one of the world's best celebrated musical theatre composers, with works including Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Sunset Boulevard was, at the time, searching for someone to play the part of Nancy. Since then she has had some major castings including one of the lead roles in Shakespeare’s 'Romeo and Juliet. Other work includes ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’, and she played the lead role as nurse Oraetta Mayflower in season four of ‘Fargo’. One of her most moving roles to date was when she portrayed the real life story of Lyudmilla Ignatenko in ‘Chernobyl’, depicting the traumatic events of the 1986 disaster. She shows off her stunning singing ability as Rose-Lynn Harlan in Wild Rose alongside Golden Globe winner Dame Julie Walters. In it she plays a wild single mother of two just released from prison, seeking Country Music fame in Tennessee. Earlier roles included Marya Bolkonskaya in the BBC 2016 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's ‘War and Peace’, Lorna Bow in ‘Taboo’ and Marian Halcombe in ‘The Woman in White’.

Locals thrilled for Jessie’s success

Members of Killarney Musical Society (KMS) were overjoyed when Jessie was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year.

“We are beyond thrilled for Jessie,” Orna Cleary from

KMS said.

“We recall Jessie as she graced the stage with us in the past, firstly as a member of our children’s chorus

She made her film debut in 2017 playing the lead role of Moll Huntford in ‘Beast’. In 2018 she won Most Promising Newcomer and was nominated as Best Actress in the British Independent Film Awards. She was recognised by Forbes in its annual 30 Under 30 list in 2019, and in 2020, was listed as number 38 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. In 2019 she was nominated for a Rising Star Award at the British Academy Film Awards, won Breakthrough Performance – Actress at the Hollywood Critics Association, Actress in a Supporting Role – Television for her role in ‘Chernobyl’ and Actress in a Leading Role – Film at the 2020 Irish Film & Television Awards (IFTAs) as well as many other nominations and wins during her career to date. This multi-talented actress who has a unique ability to immerse herself in a variety of characters keeps viewers mesmerised and engaged in every story she takes on.

THE SECRET TO JESSIE’S SUCCESS

Jessie is the daughter of Tim Buckley and Marina Cassidy. From a very young age Jessie was bitten by the acting bug. Growing up in Killarney, Jessie became a firm favourite on the drama scene with Killarney Musical Society and later Tipperary Millennium Orchestra. She emersed herself in music, reaching grade eight in piano, clarinet and harp with the Royal Irish Academy of Music. During her summers, she attended The Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) workshops which, no doubt, played a hugely important part in developing the young actress’ raw talent. She also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in September 2013. Hard work and determination are two strong traits which has seen Jessie get her to where she is today. She dedicates herself to every single role she has accepted – often shutting herself away from the world as she devotes herself to a new character. It won’t be long before she’s nominated for other major accolades – and may be the first Kerry actress to bring an Oscar home!

in ‘Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ way back in the year 2000 and then later on again in 2008 when Jessie took on the lead role of Julie Jordan in our production of ‘Carousel’.” Jessie was awarded the coveted ‘Best Actress in a Lead Role’ award for her portrayal from the Association of Irish Musicals (AIMS) that year. The Buckley family, Tim, Marina, and Jessie’s siblings, Killian, Julia and Eva, along with Jessie, have performed on stage with KMS in many productions down through the years. Jessie aged 17, boarded a flight to start filming the BBC’s ‘I’d Do Anything’ series. “We all remember with such joy and pride the turn out and the town’s excitement for Jessie’s homecoming to Killarney after that show, perhaps this was just a hint of what would lay ahead.”

Jessie,s rocking it with new album

| By Michelle Crean

Not only is she an Oscar and BAFTA nominated actress but all round entertainer Jessie Buckley has released a brand new rock album.

Jessie has made the new collaborative 12-track album 'For All Our Days That Tear The Heart' with award-winning British producer and musician Bernard Butler, who played with Suede and The Tears. It's the first time the two have worked together after being introduced by a mutual friend. It all started with a FaceTime call from Butler’s North London kitchen to Buckley’s mountaintop residence in Kerry, with their friendship growing from an unlikely shared love of Killarney. A mutual friend had a feeling they might spark. Buckley had been listening to ‘Old Wow’ by Sam Lee, produced by Bernard, in the downtime between rehearsals for the National Theatre’s televised production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Butler had seen Jessie perform a song on an American chat show in promotion of 2018’s ‘Wild Rose’. “I remember clocking just how much character there was in her voice and how freely she expressed it,” recalls Bernard. Jessie is well known for her singing talents including her time with Killarney Musical Society growing up and her appearance as a wannabe Country Music singer in 'Wild Rose'. The dynamic title track is built around words that Jessie had written during a low period whilst in Chicago filming 'Fargo', with her extraordinary vocal blazing an emotional vapour trail through Bernard’s chamber-folk arrangement. And the pair draw inspiration from the ensemble work of seminal jazz-folk innovators Pentangle on songs like ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ and ‘Sweet Child’, as the rhythm section of Misha Mullov-Abbado and Chris Vatalaro effectively converse with Jessie’s bewitching vocals. The sublime ‘20 Years A Growing’ takes its title from Maurice O’Sullivan’s celebrated 1933 account of life in the Great Blasket Island off the coast of Kerry. The more personal, piano-led ‘Seven Red Rose Tattoos’, captures the essence of loss and longing, with Jessie’s vocal lines a counterpoint to Byron Wallen’s doleful, muted trumpet: “I wanted it to be like a conversation with the ghosts of my thoughts,” says Buckley. “Right now, I feel like I’ll never make another album again, because I can’t imagine another album happening the way this one did. It’s amazing that it even happened once. This obscure, organic, odd little thing that just found us.