Jessie Buckley’s Oscar win has uncorked delight across Ireland and prompted an early start to St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Politicians, artists and commentators expressed joy and pride after waking up on Monday to images of the Kerry actor clutching the statuette for best actress in Los Angeles.
“Jessie Buckley’s award is a historic moment,” said the Irish president, Catherine Connolly. “This achievement is a thoroughly deserved testament not only to Jessie’s outstanding performance in Hamnet, but to her performances both in film and on stage across her career to date.”
As if that wasn’t enough, there are reports of thousands of Jessie Buckley masks being printed for St Patrick’s Day parades on Tuesday, a public holiday.
The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, led government tributes to Buckley, 36, and Richard Baneham, a Dubliner who won his third visual effects Oscar for his work on Avatar: Fire and Ash. “A wonderful night for Irish film and the performing arts,” he posted on X.
Simon Harris, the tánaiste, or deputy prime minister, said it had been fantastic to see Buckley become the first Irish woman to win the best actress Oscar. “What a moment. Comhghairdeas Jessie!” he said, using the Irish word for congratulations.
Brenda Fricker won a best supporting actress Oscar in 1990 for My Left Foot.
Bookies had made Buckley the runaway favourite at the 98th Academy Awards for her depiction of William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes Hathaway, in Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel.
Even so, friends, relatives and supporters in her home town of Killarney who stayed up to follow the ceremony at the Dolby theatre in Hollywood were nervous – she faced competition from Emma Stone for Bugonia, Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue and Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value.
As the announcement neared, tension had risen, said her uncle, Sean Buckley. “There’s no weight with family. You love them so much always. But when there’s so much external narrative, and people are talking about it, that’s when you feel the hype building,” he told broadcaster RTÉ.
“Whatever was in that envelope wasn’t going to change our view of her, or her view of herself, or where she sits within our family. That was all going to be the same. But it’s just the icing on the cake for her and for her family.”
From the stage, Buckley thanked her parents, who were in the audience. “Mum, Dad, thank you for teaching us to dream and to never be defined by expectation but to care from your own passion.”
Relatives said Buckley’s success – she has swept every major award in the past year – would not weaken her connectedness to Ireland.
She was “more likely to be in the garden covered in muck than walking down a high street”, her brother, Killian Buckley, told RTÉ. “At her heart, she’s incredibly, incredibly good at being herself.”
He described how he and his sister used to stage plays in the family’s living room and charge their parents to view it. “At the time, it seemed like a high price for them to pay, but I think it was good now.”
A cousin, Róisín Buckley, said Jessie was the most open person. “She’s interesting, she’s articulate. You could talk to Jessie about anything and there would be no judgment. In Hamnet, it felt like she wasn’t acting. It was like she was walking around the woods around Killarney, gathering bits and bobs to make her own potion. What you see is what you get. She’s just fantastic.”
