Costumes of the Irish silver screen sparkle and shine at Newbridge

As a new exhibition featuring Irish film costumes goes on display at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge Silverware, Ruth O’Connor speaks to exhibition curator Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh — costume designer and co-founder of the Irish Costume Archive Project.

Some of the costumes on display at Newbridge

It began as a passion project. 

Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, one of Ireland’s leading costume designers, began to wonder what happened to the stunning pieces on set when cameras stopped rolling. 

She reached out to production companies, to designers, telling them of her vision — to create an Irish costume archive.

Today, along with her friend and associate Veerle Dehaene, she has preserved costumes from films ranging from My Left Foot to The Banshees of Inisherin, and everything in between.

This week, visitors to the Newbridge Museum will be able to see these iconic pieces first-hand as a new exhibition is launched. It will appeal to film buffs, certainly, but also to any lover of fashion, design, and craft as it features costumes designed and made in Ireland for some of our most famous productions.

Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in Banshees of Inisherin

However, with the costumes also plotting, through clothing, how Irish society has changed over the decades — contrast Siobhán Ní Súilleabháin’s clothes in The Banshees of Inisherin with Marianne’s insouciant Trinity College wardrobe in Normal People — it is bound to appeal to a much wider audience too.

The pieces in the exhibition have been carefully curated to complement the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Style Icons which features pieces from the golden age of Hollywood and those worn by contemporary icons. 

In the upcoming exhibition, you’ll recognise Helen Mirren’s costume as the queen in the film of the same name, as well as costumes worn by the great and good of Irish film including a certain Irish Oscar-winner.

Anthony Hopkins in Freud's Last Session

'EVERYTHING WAS BEING SOLD'

Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh is one of Ireland’s leading costume designers. 

Her CV reads like a recent history of the Irish film industry and she has worked on productions including The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Breakfast on Pluto, Brideshead Revisited, and Calvary. 

She has just finished work on Matt Brown’s Freud’s Last Session starring Anthony Hopkins, and her work on Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin garnered much praise for her use of local materials and skills.

Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, along with Dehaene, is the co-founder of the Irish Costume Archive Project. 

The archive was established in 2017 to create a record of Ireland’s rich film industry through the preservation and conservation of its costumes — many of which have been worn by our most accomplished actors. 

Many of the costumes originally came from The Costume Mill, which once stored designs by Joan Bergin among others as well as Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh herself.

“Everything was being sold, so Veerle and I went through everything and took out costumes that we felt were important,” explains the designer. 

“A lot of them were mine alongside Joan’s costumes from productions like My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Tudors, and Dancing at Lughnasa.” 

Ardmore Studios housed the costumes which are now stored in Rathnew thanks to the support of Wicklow County Council.

“We started reaching out to production companies and costume designers telling them that we wanted to set up an archive. One of our biggest supporters is Element Pictures who have produced Poor Things, The Favourite, Room, Frank, Normal People… and we work with some private collectors too,” says Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh for whom the archive is very much a passion project.

Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto

The exhibition at The Museum of Style Icons will feature 18 costumes alongside film scripts, continuity notes, props and accessories. 

Look out for costumes from Freud’s Last Session as well as from Normal People, In the Name of The Father, My Left Foot, Breakfast on Pluto, Vikings and The Banshees of Inisherin.

Costumes from the main characters of Martin McDonagh’s award-winning screenplay feature in the exhibition. 

Worn by Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Brendan Gleeson, and Kerry Condon, the costumes were all handmade in Ireland using Irish materials.

“It’s lovely for people to see the craftsmanship that goes into these costumes,” says Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh. 

“The design is one thing, but there is a whole team of people who make the costumes on productions, so it’s lovely to highlight the talent behind the camera — the tailors and the milliners involved in making these costumes. On Banshees we used linen from Emblem Weavers in Wexford and tweed from Magee in Donegal. The jumpers were knitted by Delia Barry using wool from Studio Donegal and Cushendale.

“The great thing about film is that when we set up a workshop, everything will be done in-house unless we need huge multiples of something like uniforms that can’t be done in Ireland.”

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal in Normal People

THE TEST OF TIME

Some of her favourite pieces in the Newbridge exhibition include those from Breakfast on Pluto — “it’s 20 years old and has stood the test of time. Even back then Cillian Murphy was a star and it’s just great to see how well he’s done” – and those from Normal People.

“Designer Lorna Marie Mugan did a really beautiful job — especially when Marianne and Connell move to Dublin and start going to Trinity. He stays very ordinary while her style becomes quite bohemian.

“It’s wonderful that we have those pieces in the archive. As a costume designer myself it’s really interesting for me to see pieces in the archive and to appreciate other people’s work.”

Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh agrees that costumes often seem to take on the shape and character of the wearer.

“When Daniel Day-Lewis’ costume from In the Name of the Father is on the mannequin, I can still see him in the costume. I think that costumes really do tell a story,” she says. 

“Day-Lewis’ amazing Afghan coat was made by Donnelly’s Leather on Harcourt Street in Dublin and when The Costume Mill was closing the gentleman who made the coat came to visit and told us all about the making of it and of how he had imported the skins from Afghanistan.

“It’s wonderful for people to be able to see the work that goes into these costumes.”

Georgia Hirst in Vikings

Another key piece in the exhibition, worn by Georgia Hirst in Vikings, is a beautiful piece of leather armour made by Dubliner Kelvin Feeney who has worked on The Tudors, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Fans of Helen Mirren will enjoy seeing her costume from The Queen for which designer Consolata Boyle was Oscar-nominated. 

Helen Mirren in The Queen

Mirren is seen wearing the dress and hat whilst viewing the sea of flowers outside Buckingham Palace after the death of Princess Diana.

Is it more difficult to work on contemporary costumes than period ones? “I love doing period costume because you can’t help but be excited by the research — finding out how people lived, what they wore, the social history, all the details… the thing with contemporary costumes is that everyone has an opinion, so, it’s not that you get away with more with period costumes, but sometimes people [on set] will defer to you a bit more because you should know what it’s supposed to look like. There are a lot more critics out there now with social media too.”

Catherine Clinch in The Quiet Girl, featuring the film's symbolic yellow dress

THE YELLOW DRESS

Ephemera that will interest visitors includes an original script from My Left Foot and the costume continuity book from the same film containing behind-the-scenes Polaroid photos of Daniel Day-Lewis (in character, naturally) and Brenda Fricker (goofing around). 

There’s John Wayne’s bowler hat from The Quiet Man, Tom Hanks’ tin one from Saving Private Ryan, and Cillian Murphy’s umbrella from Breakfast on Pluto.

A favourite costume for Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh is the yellow dress worn by Catherine Clinch, star of An Cailín Ciúin.

Liam Neeson in Michael Collins

“All of the other costumes are adult-sized — Liam Neeson’s costume for Michael Collins is really imposing and people often say ‘Oh my god, is he really that tall?’ 

This dress is so tiny and it is a very poignant costume — that film really pulled at the heartstrings.

“A costume doesn’t have to be really elaborate — as Louise Stanton, the costume designer, said, it’s probably the first new dress the character has ever been bought.”

• The Irish Costume Archive Project exhibition opens at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge Silverware on May 1. Admission is free and the exhibition will run for one year. newbridgesilverware.com
• For more information about the Irish Costume Archive Project, go to: icap.ie.