FAMILY ALBUM 2017
Every December, we ask some of our favourite people to share their festive memories and traditions. This year actress Aoibhin Garrihy, singer Shane MacGowan and many, many more tell Sarah Caden how they will spend the holidays and their personal highs and
Aoibhin Garrihy
This year has been a very busy year. It started with Dancing with the Stars and, a few weeks after that ended in March, I headed to Nepal with my husband John [Burke]. He was aiming for the summit of Everest and I went as far as base camp with him and then came home while he went on. So, really, my body was home but my head was still over there.
He spent two months there and it was a trying time and nerve-racking. He reached the summit on May 16. I got the call at about 5am to say he’d made it and that was amazing, but then I started worrying about the descent; when up to 70pc of the fatalities happen. He got home a week later. He was the first Clare man to reach the summit of Everest and he’s a local hero ever since.
A huge highlight was his arrival back in Shannon. John didn’t know, but Shannon Airport had contacted me and asked was he flying in there because they wanted to give him a hero’s salute on the runway. I went up to the plane with the Clare flag and it was amazing, hundreds of people there and it was like a Jackie Kennedy, once-in-alifetime moment coming down the steps with him.
After Dancing with the Stars, I had real post-show blues. It was an amazing experience and I was thrilled to be there right to the end, but I really missed it when it was over.
The year has thrown up some lovely gigs, though, and I’ve got into a bit of television presenting with the Entrepreneur of the Year and Big Week on the Farm and I’ve done an episode of Tracks and Trails, too. My family will be in their house in Co Clare for Christmas and John’s family is in Spanish Point, so we split our day between the two.
The day will start with the Christmas Day swim in Lahinch. My family have a home in Doolin, so it’ll be my parents and my two sisters there. Both our mums are fabulous cooks, so sometimes we have two dinners because they are just so good.
My family home is up a little quiet boreen, so it’s really a case of being shut off from the world. Big rolling fire and just relax. There is a new addition to the family this year, though. My sister has a new dog. I have two big mastiffs that are nearly ponies and hers is a tiny Maltese, so we’ll see how that goes.
My mum is sick of dogs coming in to the house. She’s telling us to get a move on and bring another addition into the family and stop bringing dogs.
Rosanna Davison
Ifeel very lucky to be able to say that I have really enjoyed 2017 and all has gone smoothly. I’ve had some really enjoyable work opportunities; plenty of travel to both new and favourite destinations; a lot of fun times with family and friends, and most importantly, it’s been a happy and healthy year for me and my family. Ultimately, that’s all that really matters.
A big highlight has been a work opportunity that cropped up at the end of 2016 but was launched in September this year. Last year, I was asked to become the nutrition consultant for Constance Hotels and Resorts, who have seven five-star hotels across the Indian Ocean in incredible destinations including Mauritius, Madagascar, the Maldives and the Seychelles. It’s been a lot of work but really enjoyable and at the moment, we’re planning menus for 2018.
In a way, I’m sad to say goodbye to 2017 as it’s been a great year, but I feel that I’ve worked hard, done everything I set out to do and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of my resolutions for 2017 was to travel as much as possible and spend more time with friends, and I feel I’ve managed to do well with both.
The past number of years have been insanely busy with study, exams, writing and promoting books and running my own seminars, so this year I’ve enjoyed a break from the books and have loved taking on new challenges.
Christmas will be spent with family in my parents’ house and we’ll be joined by friends and relatives too. I absolutely love Christmas and the sense of fun and festive spirit. I try to stay away from the commercialism and overspending of Christmas as much as possible, and my family likes to give just small token gifts.
New Year’s Eve will be spent celebrating in Ireland, and then my husband Wes and I hope to get away for a week of sunshine before going back to work in January.
Norah Casey
Iwas dying to get in to 2017 because I was coming off the back of serious illness at the end of last year. I had ruptured my appendix and I was in hospital for a long time.
So, I did some really nice things this year once I was well again. My son Dara and I went to Africa and it was real bucket-list stuff. We tracked rhinos, camped by the Zambezi, lived among the elephants. I also went to Munich and to Dachau, which I’ve always wanted to do.
That was the first part of the year, but the last part of the year has really been dominated by my decision to talk about my experience of domestic violence. It was a very difficult thing and in the aftermath of talking about it publicly I felt so awful. It was like, ‘Wow, did I really do that? Did I really tell the whole world?’ I felt vulnerable and ashamed and embarrassed.
I hadn’t thought about the aftermath, but there was no going back. I turned my phone off for 48 hours. I couldn’t talk to anyone. And then I started hearing other people’s stories and pain. I had underestimated the power of what I had done and for a while, I regretted it.
With the lens of a few months, though, I feel glad I did it and got to reach out to people who have had the same experience.
I wanted to do the ‘Family Album’ picture with my nieces because they are really important to me. I’m very close to them and they’re all doing amazing, so I said let’s do the Casey next generation.
Dara just said to me the other day that he’s excited about Christmas this year. It’s five years since Richard died and it’s the first year that we both feel good about it. I feel OK this year and healthy in myself and even the idea of decorating the house feels good.
One year, we spent Christmas just the two of us, even though everyone tried to stop us, but this year we’ll be in Ahanlish in Leitrim, where my mother is from.
As the family gets a little bit older, you want to spend more time with them. I’ll be with my mum and Dara and my brother, his wife and two children, and both of my sisters. My brother has a house on the grounds of Lough Rynn and on Stephen’s Day we head to north Leitrim.
Dara’s birthday is in December and my wedding anniversary is on New Year’s Eve, so we used to hit Christmas and then pray that we’d get through to January 2 in one piece. But this Christmas will be a good one, I feel.
“I will be shunning the trappings of consumerism and living in the bough of a dead oak tree drinking only the milk of a female pine marten warmed in a discarded Coke can”
Blindboy Boatclub
I’ve had a pure class year. I’ve pushed my own boundaries by writing a book. This was a terrifying prospect, initially. The idea that you’ve to have 80,000 words written within an allotted space of time is anxiety-inducing — if you allow it to be. If you’re creative, and you’re faced with a challenge like that, it naturally brings out our self-doubt and insecurities.
Imagine someone asked you to climb a giant mountain? Well, when you ask an artist to climb a mountain, they react with fear. They look at it, its giant peak sticking its head out over the clouds like a rat poking its face through the opening of faded beige drain on the canal.
An artist will look at the apex of a mountain and assume they’re being asked to jump over it. Despite how absurd that request would be. We will ignore all rational thought and immediately tell ourselves the reasons why we can’t do it. I’m fortunate in that my daily mental-health regime informs my creative process. When I felt the fear and the insecurity of not being able to write an 80,000-word book, I reminded myself that I’m not being asked to jump a mountain. But rather climb it, gradually, calmly and deliberately.
Every journey starts with putting one foot in front of the other. Every mountain climb involves a day’s hiking, then settling down to pitch a tent, eat, reflect and relax. I gave myself a goal of 1,000 words a day. It didn’t matter to me what I was writing, so long as I reached the 1,000-words mark. Then I would reflect on those words, every evening in my head tent. By actually doing it, not putting it off, not procrastinating, it reinforced my confidence. It made the experience immensely enjoyable.
I was no longer looking up at the mountain’s peak. I was enjoying the smell of the air, noticing the different animals and plants that emerge at each increment of my ascent. I was no longer worrying about potential obstacles ahead or focusing on the terror of failure. I would look down at the ground covered, at the work I’d done, and feel stronger for it. I loved writing that book, and I can’t wait to write a second one. But I’m not climbing any mountains because hiking is for gowls.
This Christmas, I will be shunning the trappings of consumerism and living in the bough of a dead oak tree drinking only the milk of a female pine marten warmed in a discarded Coke can and heated with a pack of lighters that I bought in Dealz for €1.50.
Victoria Mary Clarke
New Year’s Day 2017 got off to a horrific start when Shane’s mother died in a car crash and I had to figure out how to tell him. Shane worshipped his mother and I knew that he would be devastated, and because he is such a sensitive soul, I was terrified that it would destroy him. It is the hardest thing that I have ever had to do.
Weirdly, the funeral itself was one of the highlights of the year, because people were so incredibly kind and we got so many letters, including a beautiful one from Michael D Higgins.
There have been many, many magical moments throughout the year.
I finally figured out how to use my smartphone, after many years trying and that meant I could spend the whole year marvelling at all the amazing apps while everyone else had already got bored with them.
This was also the year that I discovered vlogging and happy hours were spent filming myself doing stuff like running around the park, eating things and singing at the Electric Picnic on stage with both Shane and Bressie (that was potentially a lifetime highlight) and sharing it with the world. Although there were some tough lessons in humility when they didn’t go viral and only a few diehard fans bothered to watch them.
A major highlight this year was when I discovered that the thrill of seeing my media-coaching clients sparkling with confidence on telly is way more satisfying than being scintillating on telly myself. Perhaps this is also a lesson in humility.
Shane is possibly the least Christmassy person I know, which is ironic seeing as he is mainly associated with Fairytale of New York. It is also his 60th birthday this Christmas, but it is difficult to make a fuss of him without annoying him. This year we will get together with both our families on Christmas Day and he will be forced to eat turkey and ham and mince pies, whether he likes it or not. We might even make him do charades.
Shane MacGowan
Ihad a crushing blow at the start of the year when my mother died. You are just never expecting these things. But at least she went instantly while she was still full of beans and she didn’t have a long drawn-out illness. There was a double blow when Frank Murray, The Pogues old manager, died suddenly as well.
I did have a few highlights — mostly when people like Jem Finer came to visit me, or when I went to see my father. We get on really well and he is great company. Going to see U2 was a great night, they are a brilliant live band and they have really good parties. To be honest, I have never really liked Christmas, but I am happy that Fairytale of New York is still popular. After being really depressed for a while, I am looking forward to spending it with my family and with Victoria’s family.
“To be honest, I have never really liked Christmas, but I am happy that ‘Fairytale of New York’ is still popular”
Stefanie Preissner
I sort of anticipated that this year would be different but I didn’t anticipate just how different. Can’t Cope
Won’t Cope sold to the BBC. I was commissioned to write a new pilot for Channel 4, an hour-long comedy. First Look Media in New York also asked me to write a pilot and then a documentary series with RTE. And I also published a book. It was all very crazy.
People recognise me in the street. For someone who’s not a massive fan of change, it has been pretty turbulent. But I think I’ve taken it in my stride. I like the odd panic attack, so it’s fine.
It’s strange being recognised. I could be in a tracksuit in Phibsboro and someone will recognise me. I’m taller than they expected. And I’m thinking I can’t go out in a tracksuit anymore. And I can’t have road rage anymore.
When I say what I’m doing it sounds more sensational than it really is. It sounds like, ‘Oooh, she’s got a movie deal,’ but actually what I do is a lot of typing. Until you see something on screen, it’s not made. But when it comes to air, it’s exciting.
I’m just glad to be living with my two best friends in Phibsboro, doing a job that is sustaining my life and moving towards what I want to do. And that’s a lot more than a lot of people can say. These two guys [in the photograph] are like family. We’ve lived together for six years now and we say goodbye on Christmas Eve and we all go home to Mallow, where we’re all from, and then we see each other in two days’ time.
We have our own Christmas in Dublin, though. We decide together, usually at Ikea, the scent of the Christmas candle. This year, I think we’re going cinnamon and orange. We put up our decorations on December 1 and watch
Home Alone — not allowed to watch with anyone else beforehand, that’s the golden rule — and then
Muppet Christmas Carol. We have a mock Christmas Day, with hats and turkey, phones away and twinkly lights and more movies — nothing after 2000, it’s a very 1990s Christmas.
We’ll fumble around the kitchen because we’re not adults yet and we don’t have a baster or a carving knife. The turkey gets carved with a butter knife and we don’t do a ham because there’s not enough room in the oven.
I do a good roast potato. Cathal does good veg and Jo is good on the aesthetic and setting the table.
I’ll be spending Christmas Day with my nanna as usual. My mam will cook the dinner.
Gerald Kean
The way I look at it, every year is a good year. Despite the fact that you have obstacles to overcome, to me they are very small. Maybe because I am so involved with Penny Dinners and Down Syndrome and Barrettstown, you see the other side. When you’ve seen the other side of things, you realise that you have nothing to get through. I’ve never had a bad year, thank God. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Obviously, turning 60 was a big thing this year. To be honest, 30, 40 and 50 were great and I never thought about them. I thought about 60, though. People would be saying that the next one is 70 and you think, ‘Oh my God.’
I thought 60 would be ‘roll it on, let’s get going’ but I had a few days of thinking it’s time to be careful. But really I’d change nothing, except maybe starting Operation
Transformation and losing weight earlier in life. I feel much better in myself thanks to OT. There are a lot of people better at my age, but a lot who are worse and a lot of friends who are no longer alive. I’m really very positive — I ooze positivity.
I will spend Christmas at home in Drayton Manor. I’m hosting dinner this year. I have one brother and one sister and they have three children each and this year they are coming to Drayton Manor.
The real love of my life, my daughter Kirsten, will be there. She’s 21 now. I love fatherhood at all the stages. She’s an extraordinary, wonderful kid. She’s independent and knows what she wants and she’ll do anything for anybody. That’s what I like to hear from her friends.
I help Penny Dinners in Cork either before or after Christmas. I gave up the RDS [Christmas dinner] when I saw 500 volunteers standing around and they don’t need me.
I’ll do the cooking on Christmas Day. I love cooking but Christmas dinner is not my favourite to cook. I always try to overdo the accompaniments with the ham and the turkey and then it all tastes the same anyway.
But I put on lots of fires and we have lots of reminiscing and banter. And we do the present-giving after dinner. What do I want? A new left knee might be good. Other than that, I’m beyond asking for presents.
Alison Canavan
T“These silent retreats send you on an extraordinary journey. It’s 10 days of silence. It’s a very powerful, noble silence of speech, body and mind”
his year has been a spectacular year of personal growth. I went through an awful lot this year. I’m fascinated at how much my life has changed through working at it and I love how I can help others with that. But it’s about showing up every day for yourself and doing the work. You have to do the work.
I did my first silent retreat this year and ended up doing a second one later in the year. These silent retreats send you on an extraordinary journey. It’s 10 days of silence. It’s a very powerful, noble silence of speech, body and mind. No eye contact and no physical contact. You have to sign a document saying you won’t kill anyone. I was thinking, this is a bit dramatic, but on day two, when I was really struggling, I got it. I responded very physically: I threw up, I passed out.
It’s like peeling layers off an onion. I have learned this year that you have to let things come up, even if it’s very difficult. I think for some reason we’ve been told that negative emotions are bad and we should ignore them, but they are there for a reason. People only accept being present in happiness and joy but you have to be present in anger and sadness too. That’s been the change in me this year, and that has allowed me to be more content. It’s been a year of hard work.
We’re going to my older sister Jennifer’s this Christmas. Fair play to her, she’s having everybody. She has three kids, and her husband’s parents and my other sister has one kid. So James will have cousins to play with, all boys. He loves that. Everyone gets a job with the cooking. I offered to do a ham, but my sister said no. I’m trying not to be offended by that. But we all do our bit.
We usually go away every year, but this year we’re staying at home. I turn 40 in March, so I think they are all taking me skiing for that instead.
“This will be the first Christmas without my dad, so in one way I’m kind of dreading it”
Mary Mitchell O’Connor
This year had its ups and downs. Professionally, I was appointed Minister of State for Education. I love education and it’s why I went into politics — to help children and to help them reach their potential.
I had been so disappointed to be moved from Jobs and Enterprise, but I bounced back and I love my new job. I love the possibilities that it gives to children and young people and that we now have a continuum, no matter what your ability, from preschool to further education. And the biggest plus for me is that we achieved a really massive budget for higher education.
The party also had a momentous year. I want to say thank you to Enda Kenny for what he did for us when our country was in distress. We have Leo now as our new leader and I have every confidence in him for a new time and a new era of possibilities.
Personally, my father became sick last Christmas and he died on Good Friday. Christmas will be tinged with that sadness, of course.
I’ll spend Christmas morning in Dublin. I go down to the Forty Foot — only to watch the swimming, I wouldn’t get in — and I go to Mass and see friends. Then I help out a woman called Margaret Browne for a few hours. She does dinners in Blackrock Rugby Club for people who are homeless. I will then drive to Galway to spend the rest of the day with my mother and my brother and my son, Steven, who I hope will have the dinner on by the time I arrive.
My heart’s desire will be to see my granddaughter, Esme, who is a year and a half old. She is in Sligo. My other son Conor is a doctor there, so he might even be working on Christmas Day.
This will be the first Christmas without my dad, so in one way I’m kind of dreading it. I was proud that he was able to hold his great-grandchild in his arms last Christmas and, of course, I will visit his grave on the day. I’m someone who packs activity into every minute of the day and Christmas is no different.
Aisling O’Loughlin
It has been a brilliant year — probably because I’m out of my comfort zone and it’s been kind of make or break [since being replaced on Xpose in August 2016]. I have to think harder, try a bit harder. But it’s been a great year to assess everything and take a step back and we don’t get the chance to do that often in life. It has been an opportunity to stop and ask, ‘What do I really want?’
The boys are five, three and one. They’re babies and it’s such a nice time and it’s made me realise that I want to work around my family. I want the family to come first. I’m still trying to work that out and recalibrate and see can I do it financially, but it’s a worthwhile endeavour.
I know I couldn’t give it all to that job [on Xpose] and something had to give. Women don’t want to say it out loud because we are letting the side down, and we know women have great potential in the workplace, but we also want to be with our kids.
The highlight of this year is getting up in the morning and not putting on make-up and going up the road without worrying. I’m not forcing myself to be ready at the crack of dawn anymore and pushing against what is natural. The low point would be looking at my bank balance and wondering what am I going to do next.
This Christmas will be a nice one. I have a sister in Dublin and she will come over and my parents are going to come up from Clare. My mother needs to be spoilt for once. She always spoiled us and it’s time we did it for her.
Food-wise, we’re keeping it as simple as possible and there will be a lot of M&S. It’s about gathering together and not about stressing over the food and the cooking.
Nic [MacInnes, my ex] lives right beside me and has dinner with us about three times a week, so he’ll probably drop in. He’s not very Christmassy, but he’ll probably have dinner with us. It’s a very relaxed day, really.