'We are so proud of her': Jessie Buckley Oscar fever hits Killarney
A poem by Jessie Buckley's father Tim, and her picture decorated with shamrocks for the St Patrick’s Day festival and shop window posters with 'Sam’s Home, Oscar is on the way' kicked off the Jessie Buckley weekend.
Jessie Buckley fever has gripped Killarney ahead of Sunday night's Oscars at which she is one of the favourites.
A poem by her father Tim, and her picture decorated with shamrocks for the St Patrick’s Day festival and shop window posters with “Sam’s Home, Oscar is on the way” kicked off the Jessie Buckley weekend.
An image of the 36-year-old actress, dressed in green, has been incorporated onto St Patrick's Day posters for the major festival which kicks off the tourist season in her native town.
“We are so proud of her. She has remained the Jessie we know and love,” her first cousin Brendan Fuller, a radio presenter and DJ said.
It is exactly what the country needs right now, he added.
Mayor of Killarney Martin Grady has wished her every success and says the town is firmly behind her.
Her old school Scoil Bhríde Loreto in Muckross has released a video and put together a Jessie timeline.
Loreto school has a strong musical tradition and Jessie learned the tin whistle and fiddle there.
“The kids are able to go through the timeline. Jessie is a massive role model for all the kids. Lots of them are in drama school," teacher Padraig O’Sullivan said.
"We are hoping and rooting for her that she wins the Oscar and we’re all very proud of her here in Killarney."
Looking through her time in Scoil Bhríde she had a great interest in acting and playing the harp and she really enjoyed it, Mr O'Sullivan said.
Businesses across the town have united to show their pride with several long-established family-run shops on High St decorating their windows with giant flags and messages wishing her luck.
Jessie’s uncle and godfather Seán and his wife Carol run the Buckley family Arbutus Hotel in the heart of the town.
The Arbutus Hotel has a photograph of Jessie on the front of the building in honour of her achievements.
Established by Jessie’s great grandparents in 1926 — Tim Buckley was a returned emigrant from New York — the hotel and bar will be the focus of attention in the early hours with a number of television stations broadcasting from there.
On on BBC Radio 4 last Sunday, Jessie spoke of her father’s poetry and how often after meeting he would send her a poem.
Jessie’s choice of book was a bound collection of "every single poem" her father has ever written.
On Friday morning on Radio Kerry, her father Tim said win or lose the Oscar, "Jessie has already finished in glory as far as we’re concerned".
His poem was inspired by watching her learn her lines for Shakespeare.
“The actress scratches the surface of the words that she reads and waits for their meaning like an essence to bleed.
"Then she turns and she tosses them alone in her head and waits patiently in silence until her imagination is fed…
"And the words they dance inside her like a swarm of black flies that buzz like a chaos until this music appears with its discord of sorrows, darkness and tears.”
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