For Yvonne McGuinness, a return to art and family life
SHE’S the low-key woman whom Cillian Murphy calls his rock – and friends say his artist wife Yvonne McGuinness won’t be a bit fazed by the Oscars’ glitz and glamour.
And although there may well be a gold statuette in their hotel suite tomorrow morning, the couple are likely to recede from the limelight again straight after the ceremony, say friends.
Cork actor Murphy, the red-hot favourite to win tonight for Oppenheimer, has thrown himself into his Academy Award campaign with gusto, though he has frequently alluded to his discomfort in the spotlight.
And his Kilkenny-born wife Ms McGuinness, who has been by his side for much of awards season, is equally private and familyoriented and could be back on public transport again next week. ‘They’re both very private and she’s very down to earth,’ a neighbour told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘When they moved back to Ireland first [from London in 2015] they lived at Crosthwaite Park in Dún Laoghaire – they’re big houses, but not particularly posh houses.
‘They live now in Monkstown in a grander house, but you still see her or him out in the Spar in Monkstown or down on Dún Laoghaire pier. There’s no airs and graces about her. She takes the Dart.’
The neighbour said that Yvonne’s ‘big focus, like Cillian, is on the kids and their education. She told people it was one of the reasons they moved back.’
The couple, who have been together for 28 years and married for 20, flew to Los Angeles for the Oscars earlier this week with their two sons, 16-year-old Aran and 18-year-old Malachy.
‘Their kids were enrolled in a private school [in Dublin],’ the source said. ‘It’s not particularly local to where they are, but they thought it was the best one so they sent them there.’
The MoS contacted several collaborators and curators who have worked with Ms
McGuinness to inquire about her approach to art, but each decided that even that might constitute a breach of trust for the fiercely private 51-year-old.
She describes herself as an artist ‘working with place, time and community’ on her website and has collaborated with – or been inspired by – the public on many of her projects.
She told the Irish Independent ahead of her last exhibition in Kilkenny that ‘I usually work from the ground up.
‘I go into communities, meeting people, chatting, going to schools, understanding the context. I want to understand how things work or don’t, how people are, how they belong or don’t.’
Ms McGuinness comes from a dynasty of Fianna Fáil politicians from Kilkenny. Her uncle John McGuinness is a TD for CarlowKilkenny; her cousin Andrew – John’s son – is a councillor; and her grandfather Michael was mayor of the city five times.
She said that ‘legacy of political engagement fuels’ her latest exhibition, Rehearsals, a solo show of fabric and film in Kilkenny’s Butler Gallery that was ‘inspired by the environs, architecture and people of Kilkenny, past and present’.