Meet the couple in Kerry making pottery for Ireland’s Michelin-star restaurants

Fermoyle Pottery, tucked away in Ballinskelligs, creates bespoke ceramics now gracing Michelin-starred restaurant tables across Ireland

Stephen O’Connell and Alexis Bowman at their Fermoyle Pottery studio in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry. Pictures: Joe McNamee

Hidden up a narrow laneway in Ballinskelligs, just off the Cahirsiveen Rd, it would be just another standard Irish rural bungalow were it not for the exceptionally lush planting bringing a tropical feel to this remote part of South Kerry. Formerly Stephen O’Connell’s childhood residence, it is now home to him, Alexis Bowman, and their three children.

But six years ago, it also become home to Fermoyle Pottery, where the young couple produce the sublime clay creations that are colonising the tables of some of Ireland’s finest Michelin-starred restaurants.