After 25 tumultuous years of drink and drug abuse, 32 hospitalisations and numerous near-death experiences, Mary Coughlan is finally happy. She tells Jo Lavelle ho writing her new autobiography, Bloody Mary, helped to banish her demons.

Talking about her feelings was never something the acclaimed signer was good at; she was outspoken on every other matter, but never on the things she desperately needed to get off her chest. And then like anything that’s been buried deeply and needs to find it’s way out, the past came knocking on her door and she couldn’t handle it. And so, at the age of around 30 and with three young kids, Mary began to attempt to battle her demons in the only way she knew how.

Her memoirs are disturbing, shocking, but as a reader, you feel an immense respect for what this woman has gone through, how openly she talks about the most vulnerable times of her life. The abuse she suffered as a child, the 32 hospitalisations for alcohol poisoning, the broken relationships, drug abuse, a miscarriage…

“Writing a memoir is like peeling an onion; everybody has layers of stuff they want to hide and with every layer that’s pealed away, hidden layers are being revealed. You choose to tell what you want to tell and you choose to hide what you want to hide. They’re my memoirs and they’re my stories and there’s nothing in there that I’m afraid of anymore; it’s all true.”

“There was an awful lot of stuff that I had to get out of me. I felt that it would have a healing effect on me, and it has done that. It’s closure. I’m not afraid to say the things that I said in the book; they no longer have any hold over me. From all that I’ve learned in 40 years of therapy and counselling, it was a relief when my counsellor said to me, ‘Given the life that you’ve had it could never be any other way’. I had this feeling deep inside me; I knew I wasn’t going to cave in under this thing forever. I had to go through whatever I had to go through and I do believe it was part of my journey. I had to drag everyone down with me, and that’s the unfortunate part of it. If you don’t learn from these experiences, it’s useless, but if you do there’s some redemption.”

A self-confessed wild woman who enjoyed the ‘craic’, Mary’s drinking was considered sociable back in the days when she lived in Galway, hanging out in Neactains, The Crane, the old Quays. It was the late 70s, early 80s, and the arts scene was starting to grow in the city, the atmosphere electric, and this Shantalla woman was bang smack in the centre of it all. “Hanging around Galway years ago, we were all the life and soul of the party in the pub, having a few pints, having the craic. It was a real social thing, hanging around and the kids would be hanging around on a Saturday afternoon as well and you’d be having pints. Everybody was doing it; it was our way of socialising.” It was when success came knocking on her door, and she moved to Dublin when she was 29 that her “huge love affair with booze” really started to take hold. “I started drinking shorts and tequila and gin and tonics. In the music business, it was everywhere and it was free. I just took to it like a duck to water.” On the night of her 30th birthday while playing a gig, she was given 30 brandy and ports…and drank them all.

Mary’s story only gets bleaker in the following years; there were suicide attempts, huge binges, near death experiences on numerous occasions, all the while attempting to bring up her children (she’s now a mother of five). At one stage, Mary was downing three to four bottles of vodka a day, not eating, and adding Ribena to her drink for vitamins. There were so many admissions to Dublin hospitals that they began to refuse to take her. Following her admission to a mental hospital in Newcastle, and a miscarriage, she finally called in quits. She stopped drinking in 1993 after a stint in the Rutland Centre and has stayed clean apart from a relapse into drug use five years ago. It’s only now, at 53 years old, that she’s finally made peace with herself.

“It’s nice to actually be sitting here saying these things out loud. So I’ve done an awful lot of healing work over the years and it’s only now that they’re clicking into place, it’s taken all this time for all this stuff to make sense. I almost died from drinking; I ended up in the intensive care unit with a couple of hours to live and it was basically because I was not able to talk about anything that was bothering me. I’m not unusual in that; an awful lot of people I’ve met in recovery have had terrible secrets that they’ve been hiding all their lives. I haven’t had a drink in 15 years and I think if I had had a drink five or six years ago, I would not be alive today.”

With the book closed on the darker side of her life, Mary Coughlan’s grabbing her second chance with both hands. She’s just bought a “beautiful, beautiful, beautiful” old house on the Sugar Loaf Mountain, her children are around her, her boyfriend of four years, John is by her side, and her famous sense of humour is intact…it’s Mary’s time to shine.

Bloody Mary is published by Hodder Headline Ireland and is available from all good bookstores.

Funky and fresh, Galway’s newest gourmet restaurant, Artisan, is the ultimate dining experience.

Candlelight, soft sounds and subdued lighting create the perfect atmosphere in which to enjoy the extraordinary culinary delights of this true foodie restaurant. Located in probably one of the best spots in the city, above Tigh Neachtain’s, Artisan’s windows look down on the charming medieval buildings of Quay Street and Cross Street and create the perfect spot to while away a couple of hours while enjoying the best food in the city.

This restaurant is stylish and contemporary, while still being cosy and welcoming; it’s elegant, yet funky and oozes style and sophistication. This restaurant truly reflects the mood and ambiance of the city, while catering for the ever-discerning Galway customer.

Serving the very best of local, in-season produce, organic where possible, Artisan’s head chef, Sylvan Gatay prides himself on serving continuously exceptional French classic/Irish dishes with a twist. The winner of three Bridgestone awards in a row, Sylvan ensures an exquisite fine dining experience every time.

Artisan’s menu is exiting and varied, with one of the biggest selections of speciality seafood in the city. Just some of the exquisite dishes on the dinner menu include baked loin of marinated spring lamb with Mediterranean vegetables and salsa verda and the pan-fried duo of fresh scallops and tiger prawns, citrus linguini with rocket leaves. Or you just might be lucky enough to sample one of Artisan’s stunning fish dish specials (but only if it’s freshly caught that day!).

For those who fancy an aperitif after their meal, pop downstairs to one of the city’s most intimate and cosy bars to sample one of Tigh Neachtain’s fantastic selection of rare malt whiskeys (the second largest in the country!). Or indeed if you don’t fancy moving from such a stunning setting, Artisan can arrange for you to enjoy your whiskey in the restaurant.

Artisan is lucky enough to be located in one of the oldest, most historical buildings in the city, and was formerly the home of the famous Martin family from Ballinahinch. Tigh Neachtains itself was founded in 1894 by Sean O Neachtain from Spiddal and is still run by the same family today.

Artisan also has a great lunch menu, with a choice of beautiful bowls of fresh salads such as creamy organic goats cheese and roasted beetroot salad with toasted seeds, nuts and cider dressing, or just try to resist the simply delectable artisan plate of cured meet and cheese, garlic crostini, basil pesto and black olive tapenade and hummus. Artisan also offers its own delicious homemade bread, homemade chutneys and irresistable cakes and deserts.

Sundays mark wind down time for Artisan, where you can kick back and enjoy the best brunch in town to the mellow sounds of the funky Disconauts - the ultimate Sunday experience!

Proprietor, Matt Skeffington, while aiming to create the perfect dining experience, is also keen to use the restaurant as a showcase for up and coming talented artists, with the stunning works of Vincent Casey and Andy McManus currently on display. The exceptionally talented Italian artist Francesca Ramello was also commissioned, from Italy, to produce the extraordinary artwork that greets you on entering the restaurant’s stairwell – creating an authentic contemporary Italian feel.

So for the ultimate in city dining, visit Artisan - for restaurant of the true food lover.

Artisan, Quay Street, Galway 091 532655 mattskeff@gmail.com
Contact Francesa Ramello on franciramello@yahoo.it 085 1185300.

The diamond – a symbol of unity, love, eternity. There are few things in life as beautiful as a fine diamond, and there’s no jewellers more passionate about the world’s most stunning gems than Hartmanns.

Sourcing some of the finest quality diamonds, Hartman’s prides itself on its unsurpassable expertise in diamonds, offering its customers the most detailed and up-to-date advice. Understanding that a diamond is not only a gift of huge sentimental value, but also an investment for life, Hartmanns ensures that all customers receive the time, focus and attention to detail that they deserve. And being the biggest seller of diamond rings in Galway, with the largest selection of diamond rings in the West, customers know that to purchase at Hartmanns means they are assured of the greatest choice, highest quality, and excellent service.

Staying true to its focus on the highest of quality and always leaders in the market, Hartmanns is the only stockist in the West of Ireland of ‘Hearts On Fire’; the world’s most perfectly cut diamonds. Every diamond is cut precisely to enhance its beauty, perfectly displaying the sparkle and brightness of the jewel. And with a finely-tuned understanding of its customers needs, Hartmanns is now working harder to source its top quality diamonds at a better price to suit tighter budgets – so you don’t have to sacrifice quality for what will be one of the most important investments you will ever make. Business integrity is extremely important to Hartmanns, who complies with the Kimberly Process, the industry’s global accord to ensure that wards and human rights abuses are not financed by trade in diamonds.

Synonymous with style and elegance, Hartmann’s stocks some of the world’s most sought-after luxury brands such as Fope and Faberge, in addition to exclusive watch brands Rolex, Tag Heuer, Omega and Breitling, Raymond Weil and Longines.

In the newly renovated silver jewellery department, Hartmanns carries Links of London and Mont Blanc and not forgetting the men, it has recently added Alfred Dunhill cuff links, pens and leather goods to its exclusive collection.

Service is hugely important to Hartmanns, with its own jewellers working full-time at the store’s workshop. Here, the highly experienced jewellers custom-make wedding bands, and offer an exclusive back-up service to clients that simply can’t be found elsewhere.

Through four generations, Hartmanns has secured itself firmly as one of the city’s most established, well-loved and much-trusted jewellers. Hartmanns was founded by Alphonsus Hartmann, a watchmaker who came to Ireland from Baden in 1895. It was with his son, Eamonn that Alphonsus opened the first A Hartmann & Son in Eyre Square, before moving to Mainguard Street in 1950, and from there, a long tradition of quality and excellent service was born. Continuing the family legacy, Eamonn’s son Garry, a qualified watchmaker, undertook to make Hartmanns the most exclusive and cosmopolitan jewellers in the West of Ireland, moving to the current premises on William Street. With Garry’s untimely death in 1997, his wife Caitriona took on the running of the business, being joined by their son Richard in 2001. Caitriona and Richard continue to run Hartmann’s today, as focused as ever on continuing with the tradition of excellence that has been synonymous with Hartmanns for over 60 years.

A Hartmann & Son Ltd, 27-29 William Street, Galway 091 562063 www.hartmanns.ie

This luxurious retreat is stylish and contemporary, while also managing to be cosy and inviting. Large funky loungers and contemporary chandeliers greet you on entering the spa and the pristine attention to detail is evident throughout. All seven treatments rooms are individually designed with luxurious surrounding and are also soundproofed and air conditioned with piped music and heated beds – ideal ingredients for the ultimate retreat from reality.

The spa also houses two tanning rooms, three nail bars, two pedicure suites, a hydrotherapy bath and a relaxation area, ensuring that every aspect of the grooming and therapeutic process is covered.

Having relocated to a much larger premises of over 2,500 sq feet, the new Elysium offers the ultimate in top quality treatments from highly qualified therapists using only the finest products. While Elysium has all the ingredients of a spa, it does not charge spa prices and has a relaxed and down-to-earth vibe to it.

Proprietor Valerie Queally Osborne, a highly qualified therapist with over 12 years’ experience, prides herself on high standards. Selected as one of Ireland’s top five facial therapists by the Irish Beauty Professionals Association and also winning an IBPA award for Elysium, Valerie amalgamates all the experience and knowledge gained from working in salons and spas all over the world under one roof to create an emporium of excellence, quality and style.

Valerie believes that her staff are the true gem of her spa. They create a warm , friendly atmosphere, and instantly make you feel relaxed and at ease, all with a true passion and confidence for what they do best. All therapists have a minimum of at least three years advanced experience. Continual training is standard; staff participate in numerous courses throughout the year to ensure all therapists are exceptional when it comes to standards of excellence and professionalism. This expertise, combined with breathtaking and truly opulent surrounds with decadent treatments, make Elysium one of the most sought-after spas in the West.

In addition to all basic grooming, Elysium now offers a huge new range of amazing treatments including Thai Thermal Massage Therapy, Microdermabrasion and Ellipse IPL Laser, which is used for the treatment of unwanted hair growth and a broad range of skin conditions and thread vein removal. Elysium uses only the best in skincare products, including YonKa, Dermalogica and now the new maternity range Mama Mio. The spa uses the superb Glo Minerals as its make-up of choice, a clinically advanced mineral make-up that helps correct and protect the skin with stunning results.

Special packages are also available for bridal parties, baby showers or just a girlie get together – the perfect pick-me-up for these chilly days. Just pop on one of Elyisum’s fluffy robes and slippers, chill out in the relaxation area with a herbal tea, luxuriate in the surroundings and choose from the endless list of tempting treatments.

To access a full list of treatments, log onto www.elysium .ie. Opening hours are from 10am to 7pm Monday to Wednesday, 9am to 9pm on Thursdays and Fridays and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays.

Elysuim Day Spa, An Fuaran, Moycullen 091 556846.

So you’re not 21 anymore. You have a mortgage, you’re getting engaged, getting married, having kids or furthering your career. You’re moving on, everything’s changing, except for one thing - your drinking, writes Jo Lavelle.

In your early 20s, going out and getting into the obligatory drunken stupor was not just ok; it was totally acceptable. But now you’re drinking just as much, if not more, it’s having an increasing negative impact on your life and the guilt is setting in. One of the biggest faux pas in Irish society is to tell someone just how much of a fool they made of themselves the night before. It’s not done – you don’t want to cause them any more damage than the hangover’s already doing.

But ignoring it is just what’s adding fuel to an already out of control fire says Joe Treacy, Alcohol Addiction Counsellor with the HSE (Health Service Executive) West, Galway who suggests that the city is now facing an epidemic of female binge drinking – and it’s impacting on our health, our children, our relationships and our careers. “It was a taboo to find a woman in treatment ten to 15 years ago. I remember being in treatment settings with nine men and maybe one woman and usually, she was very well advanced. There was a reluctance to engage women into treatment in the past. It’s a macho thing; like it’s ok for men to go to the pub. But women tend to drink at home, secretly and that prevails all the time. In our last treatment programme here, we had five women and six men – the taboo is gone. You didn’t see that ten years ago. It’s a rarity now for a woman not to drink and they try to drink on a par with their male counterparts. They can do it successfully for a time but because of women’s bodily functions, they are more susceptible to liver damage and that’s what we’re seeing,” states Treacy. He blames the increase in binge-drinking in women on the increased stresses and pressures of today. “The stress of women is incredible. It leaves me breathless when I ask a woman to describe her working day. I’m suddenly realising that she has a day’s work done before she arrives into work. I’m continually amazed with what women are trying to juggle in their lifestyles. Women are working like dogs and they’re wrecked before their time. They’re stressed up to their eyeballs, trying to juggle work and home life.”

One of the main fall-outs of binge drinking is the number of children being taken into care due to their mother’s drinking. “Sadly enough, a lot of the women that are referred here are referred due to childcare issues. Somebody has noticed that a child’s behaviour has changed, a child goes missing, or a teenager is reacting at home and suddenly it comes out that it’s mum’s drinking. Women feel very aggrieved about this - they’re saying, ‘Why point the finger at me? They have a dad as well.’ But women are the main refuge of children, particularly small children - nobody does it better than mum. It’s very, very extreme to remove children and the HSE goes to extraordinary lengths to keep children at home. The fact that it’s happening is a testament to how severe the problem is.

“The amount of children in this health board being taken into care because of parental drinking is dramatically increasing every month and every year. We didn’t see that five years ago; home alone, children wandering the streets, the case of the child wandering around the Eyre Square Centre, deliberately abandoned by his mother who was drinking, children being locked in Isuzu jeeps one race week when guards had to
break in.”

Another major effect that binge drinking is having on women in the city is that their sexual health is being put at serious risk, states Treacy. “We’ve had a large degree of unreported aggravated sexual behaviour directed at women in Galway because
they’re drunk. Many women have said they didn’t report it because they just didn’t want the embarrassment or the hassle that goes with it. We’re now referring women to sexual health clinics because of their drinking; that’s a growing phenomenon. There’s a predatory nature in the city – men in nightclubs are watching girls getting drunk. Spiking of women’s drinks is a phenomena that has attracted much attention. In instances where women said their drinks were spiked in Galway, we found no substances, but found that their concentrates of alcohol would knock a horse out, let alone themselves. We saw 900 people last year and still haven’t got a sample to say the date rape drug was in their drink.”

Treacy also suggests that Galway could be the highest dispenser of the morning after pill in the country. “If there’s a festival or a party, there’s an increase in the number of women requesting the morning after pill, which is their right, but it’s an indicator of the level of recklessness or carelessness. We have an all-year round drinking festival.”

While alcohol-related problems are evidently on the rise, women are still reluctant to seek treatment due to a sense of shame and it usually takes some kind of catalyst for a woman to seek help for an alcohol problem. Treacy says that it can be something from a minor road traffic accident, to presenting at work with a smell of alcohol from the night before or relationship problems. It can be childcare issues, or it can just
be a blood sample which shows high levels of alcohol in the blood. “Women are sometimes totally unaware of the units of alcohol that are acceptable. They are amazed that their limit should be 14 units a week – a unit is a glass of wine or a half of Guinness. If you’re a woman and you go to your GP and say you’re depressed, they’re a hundred times more likely to give you an antidepressant than they would a man. We’re saying that GPs should certainly be listening more. There’s a somewhat
quiet apprehension in engaging a woman and saying, ‘What about your alcohol consumption?’ Because the attitude is, if she presents well and looks well, leave her alone.” Treacy adds that while our cultural attitude to alcohol needs to be
looked at, another major factor in the rise in binge drinking and alcohol-related problems is the huge amount of money being spent on advertising by the drinks industry. “By international standards, Ireland has major problems with alcohol. We
spend €150 million a day on alcohol and the cost continues to rise. The implications are massive from a health perspective, particularly in women as it encroaches on every aspect of their lives.”

…..EXCERPT

Looking good is important to the majority of us; we want to look good, we want to be attractive, desirable. And while we might allow ourselves to feel nice when we’ve lost a couple of pounds, when we’re wearing a cute dress, and when we’ve been ‘good’ that week, what about the other six days of the week when we just feel like ourselves?

So many women view their bodies as the enemy; something they’re constantly trying to control, contain, repel. We scold our bodies for being rounded, our thighs for having cellulite, our breasts for being too big/too small. When we’re not feeling great about ourselves, we stuff ourselves with ‘bad’ food (for a ‘bad’ body), as if we weren’t feeling bad enough. We punish ourselves with unrealistic goals and punish ourselves when we don’t achieve them.

I’m generalising, but there is not one woman I know who believes, or who will admit, that she is happy with herself, her shape, her body. It’s easy to blame society, or the media, or men for women’s warped view of their bodies, but is it not our own responsibility to take the power back?

Views of what constitutes a good body has undoubtedly changed from the curvaceousness that was cherished in the 50s, to the lean and mean which is now revered over the more meaty among us. Something else that was accepted as the norm in the 60s and 70s were little bellies and cellulite (think a scantily-clad Barbara Windsor jiggling about the place in the Carry On movies). Not much of a chance these days of seeing a woman with such credentials finding her way onto the small screen as a desirable woman in today’s anti-cellulite society. But when the reality is that most women look more like this, why can’t we just accept the things we can’t change and change the things we can?

Let’s face it - being obesely overweight has never been attractive. Flab has never been attractive. And why should it be? It’s unsightly, unhealthy, and it’s covering up your true form. But that’s another issue - just where do you draw the line between curvy and overweight? I’ve asked numerous guys to comment on this issue and they all seem to differ hugely in what they consider to be curvy. One particular guy I asked seemed to balk at the word ‘curvy’, saying it’s just a pretty word for being fat. When I asked him to define fat, I think ‘rolls’ were mentioned, so I’m guessing he had a large lady in mind, and that wasn’t to his taste. Others think that curvy is slim, but not skeletal. But men, like us, like aesthetically pleasing bodies; they don’t have to be tiny, just healthy looking and relatively firm. And while it can be quite a depressing thought, that’s life, who said it was fair?

Where men are concerned, it’s all too easy to look around and see our men dribbling over a picture of a stunning stick thin model, feel inadequate, and instantly want to lose a stone . But the model probably walked onto the shoot looking pale and pasty and about as sexy as a toad - that’s real life. Welcome on stage the make-up artists, lots of tan, lighting, hours of touching up. And then of course there’s the airbrushing, which, believe me, can work wonders. And what have you got? An illusion. Most men worth their salt will know that. And we all like to dream. We women are just as guilty of dreaming; it’s just that we might not be as obvious when checking out a hot guy.

In reality, real men love real women. They just love women, and everything that comes with that. Most men find confident women appealing, especially those who are also confident about their bodies, and all the little imperfections. I remember an ex of mine saying he loved a certain part of my body, because I loved it myself. It was the first time I had any awareness that confidence inspires confidence. Do you ever notice how if you are feeling particularly attractive and loving yourself, or indeed, a particularly part of your body and your partner just can’t keep his hands to himself?  - the power of self-love. Or what about those times when you’re feeling particularly unattractive and your repellent attitude is somehow transferred onto your partner?

So many women I know are on a constant battle to lose weight, and out of all of them, I can’t ever recall even one woman saying, ‘I’m happy; I’ve reached my goal, now I can just focus on other, more important things’. Just how long does this self-punishment go on for, till you’re 40, 50, 60?

I recently found an old diary from when I was 14 or 15 and with each entry, there was a little mark at the top of each page with a different weight goal on each entry. As I was documenting my weight, how much I had to loose, how long it would take me to loose it, I would also discuss with myself how great I would feel, how happy I would be, when I reached my goal. But it hadn’t started there either; I remember, at 12 years old, eating nothing but rivita and apples because I desperately wanted to be 7 ½ stone. That was in the 80s; there’s a lot more pressure today.

I’ve never really been overweight by more than say half a stone, but there’s never been a time in my life, since I became aware of my body, that I’ve been completely happy with it, even when I’m at my ideal weight. Like most other women, I feel I  could always look better, be thinner, be more toned.

Really, in a perfect world, we would look after ourselves, accept and love the way we are, enjoy life, enjoy our bodies, and just stop obsessing…what will it take for women to make peace with the female form?

Nights on the town too numerous to count, weekends away with the girls, endless phone conversations about boys. Jo Lavelle ponders the joys of being single.

Finding yourself single when all around you are falling in love, getting engaged, getting married, having children, can be pretty daunting. When it seems like everyone around you is moving onto the ‘next’ step, you feel stationary, like you’re moving nowhere. But there’s something about being single that causes you to become more determined to have fun, to prove wrong all the loved-up couples who believe that life is nothing if there’s not two of you to experience it together. And it’s this adrenaline, or pig headedness if you like, that, if channelled in the right way, can result in you having the best time of your life.

A good social life is of paramount importance in a single girl’s life. Throw in a good party girlfriend, a great wardrobe, loads of energy and a willingness to let go a little - and you’re in for one hell of a fun time. You’ll probably need at least one partner in crime - someone who’s more likely to be whiling away weekend mornings huddled under the duvet, only to rise in time to stick on a wash, go for a blow dry and head out on the town again.

There’s something deliciously exciting about being single; it’s that not knowing what’s around the corner. Not knowing who you might bump into and what that might lead to. Options are endless, and the world’s your oyster. Then there are the dates, the dizzying excitement of meeting new people. When you’re single you accept invitations that you would never have considered otherwise, have no problem spending half a day getting ready, squeezing into that little black number. You party till 5am, flirt outrageously (and are rarely admonished for it).

The single girl has a licence to live life to the max - to party hard, have fun, be a bit wild. She has a licence to blow all her wages on a pair of D&Gs if she so wishes, or spend her entire food budget for the week on Prosecco and olives.

A great wardrobe is also one of the by-products of a single life. So much time to focus on yourself - those hours trying on dozens of jeans looking for one that gives you the perfect ass; the self-indulgent splurging on the prettiest dresses, the must-have shoes…all because you deserve it.

Then there’s that absolute independence, the feeling that you could pack up and leave for some exotic destination in the morning, even if you never have any intention of carrying through all the threats.

And while being single may not always be a walk in the park; there’s always going to be times when you’d give anything for a cuddle from a pair of big loving arms, chances are you won’t always be single. So embrace it, enjoy your time on your own. Chances are you’ll look back in 20 years on these days as the best time of your life. Enjoy!

By Jo Lavelle

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On my way to meet with James Brown, celebrity hairdresser and best friend of Kate Moss, I’m bracing myself for lots of air kissing and dahlings. Instead, I am met with a genuine guy, who you quickly realise has zilt time for any of the typical pretentiousness that you associate with celebrity.

We meet in the Unicorn Restaurant in Dublin where James and his PR girl, Jennie are sitting patiently amidst the sea of suits. What was to be an interview over lunch quickly turns into what seems like lunch with mates over a really nice couple of glasses of Châteauneuf du Pape and great food.

Chatting about Galway, which he now calls home, his horses, Supermacs and getting a bit worse for wear at the races while trying to keep up with his beer drinking Irish friends, you get the impression that this Croydon-born chap is now ready to take a step back from the glitz and glamour for something a bit more real. The reason we’re meeting up is that James has just launched his new range of hair products, but he seems reluctant to discuss that side of things, preferring to chat about the possibility of him holding the stations at his house in Ballinrobe and his life as stylist to the stars.

But James’ real friends are those he’s had for years and admits that he meets lots of ‘wankers’, words he kindly puts in my mouth when I ask him how he deals with the whole ‘celebrity’ hairdresser label. “I don’t entertain it at all. At the end of the day, I blow dry hair - I’m a hairdresser, that’s all I do. I’m not saving the world; I’m not saving lives. Obviously, I’m good at it but it’s not brain surgery and I hate being called celebrity hairdresser.” Maybe so, but working with A-list clients like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, The Beckhams and Johnny Depp is obviously a tad more exciting than chopping hair in a salon down the high street. “I am lucky, when I find myself moaning, I think, I’m in paradise here.”

Some of his favourite celebs to work with include Sarah Jessica Parker and Demi Moore, “an amazing woman” who is he says is super professional and really nice. Julianne Moore is another of his favourites. “You just feel like you’ve known her forever. Most of them are my clients regularly, so it’s easy. You see them at their most vulnerable because you’re at their house and they’ve just got out of bed and your in their life completely which no one else would ever see in a million years. You’re there in their bedroom or even in the bathroom helping them wash their hair. So they’re in a very vulnerable state but obviously they can trust me.”

When in need of a bit of escapism from the whole scene, James hops on a plane and heads for Killimor, where he’s been coming since a little boy.

“Every time I come here I feel super, super at home like nowhere else I’ve ever been before. When I’d go the airport sometimes, I’d cry when I’d have to leave. A lot of people don’t understand it at all. During the summer, everyone’s going off to Cannes or sailing around St Tropez and I come to Ballinasloe - they can’t understand it. This Christmas and New Year, everyone’s going to Thailand, I’m coming here. I did that for years but now I’d choose this a hundred million per cent any day.”

He says he’d love to have Kate over to stay in Galway, but admits the last thing he’d want to do is bring the wrath of the paparazzi on the sleepy village of Tynagh.

“I am still in that scene and I speak or see Kate every day but I love having that balance and if I can’t manage to get here for some reason then I’ll be in the countryside at Kate’s but I’ll be up and out and still riding there as well - I just love the balance of that.”

Mentions of Kate are dotted throughout our conversation. He laughs as he tells me of how he was dying to get on the phone to Kate to tell her that the guy’s name who was renovating his outhouse in Killimor was called Mossy, his nickname for Kate. I ask him what it is about Kate that has the public in a constant state of fascination. “I think it’s because she has a way of disarming people. She doesn’t get out of a limo with 20 bodyguards and dark glasses on, making an entrance. She’ll get out, put her head down and get in. And the fact that you do see her without her hair and make-up, you do see her in the country with her wellies on. She’s not airbrushed all the time so I think she’s the most relatable out of everyone. You go to work with Kate everyone will tense and then she’ll come onto set and everyone is disarmed immediately - she’ll know every single assistant’s name by the end of the day. She’ll be in the corner chatting away to the caterers; their models and other celebrities don’t do that. I know not a lot of people get to see that but she is super down to earth and normal. She drives her own car, she’ll walk to the pub - she’s normal, as much as she can be for being Kate Moss.”

It was a collaboration with Kate, who he befriended in his late teens, which catapulted James into the world of celebrity and fashion. He dubs as “life changing” the first cover of Vogue he ever did with Kate at the age of 22. “It was so easy because it was a natural process, because I was doing Kate’s hair which I did anyway all the time, my friend Corrine Day was taking the pictures, who was my flatmate, it was just so mellow and easy and great and it ended up changing the whole industry really.”

Following over two decades in the industry, James decided to launch his own product range. “I was always mixing and matching products and it was never quite what I wanted. I just thought, wouldn’t it be great if I did my own products and then I just did it. I think the time was just right basically to do it.”

So what in James’ opinion makes a great hairstyle? “Simplicity. For me, it’s when someone looks like they haven’t tried, that they haven’t spent hours on their hair is the best for me really. You want the hair to be simple if you’ve got a ball gown on. And that keeps you modern and fresh. You never see Kate with huge hair and a huge dress and full make-up. The hair is always super simple but the outfit can be over the top. That’s why she always looks so good.”

How does he rate us Galway women on the fashion front?  “I love the city; I think people look amazing in Galway City. You see really well dressed women, kids that have the best style; a lot of the students don’t have any money but the way they’re put together is amazing. It’s so weird now that I see people in Galway and I think God, that’s amazing and a season later, on the catwalk in New York, I’ll see the same stuff. Because the designers are out there on the streets copying what they see. I’m on the firing line of fashion - I’m at a show in New York, on the first week of fashion season and I see where the stuff is coming from and it’s coming off the streets. Women are really well put together in Galway.” I tell him the ladies will love him after that comment.

We head off through Stephen’s Green, and he’s asking me where he might find a pair of white fingerless gloves when we bump into Victoria Mary Clarke, girlfriend of Shane McGowan. She tells him it’s Shane’s 50^th, there’s a party for him in London. Will he be there? Absolutely he will. Wonder if he’ll need a break in Killimor after that session?

Having just finished the Cork movie, Strength and Honour, directed by Cork’s own Mark Mahon, Jo Lavelle caught up with Hollywood movie star, Michael Madsen, on the set of what is set to become next year’s blockbuster.

In our exclusive, Michael tells us why he loves Ireland, what he really thinks of Hollywood and why he badly wanted to play the lead role in the movie.

Strength and Honour, which will hit the big screens in 2007, is set in contemporary Cork and tells the story of an Irish boxer who accidentally kills his friend in the ring. He promises his wife he will never fight again, but when he discovers his only son is dying of the same heart disease that took his wife, he’s forced to break his promise.

Best known for his roles in Resevoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise and Donnie Brasco, it’s easy to see why Michael is typically chosen for the part of the tough bad guy. With his broad 6′ 2″ build, dark good looks and his gravely, testosterone-soaked voice exude masculinity.

However, this time around, Michael was happy to take a break from the bad ass guy and play the role of good guy, Sean Kelleher.

“Mostly, I’m pretty much remembered for playing various people - a lot of bad guys and killers and things like that and to be honest with you, I was getting a bit tired of it and I wanted to change. I wanted to be one of these guys who rides off into the sunset, which I don’t often get a chance to do. So originally, I was offered the other part in this movie of the killer, of the ‘Smasher’, but I said no.

“Then when I found out they had Vinnie Jones to play ‘Smasher’, I thought that was a great idea and I finally convinced them to let me play Sean. I think Mark wanted me for Sean all along but I think there was some other people he had to talk into it. And I’m working with people like Finbar Furey, and Patrick Bergin. I mean, these guys are great actors in their own right and it makes my job a lot easier.”

Pulling off the Irish accent is notoriously difficult for actors, with a long list of disastrous attempts down through the years, but hanging out in Ireland for a couple of months was all Michael said was needed to pick it up.

“I leaned a lot more about it from hanging out with the local people than I did from any books or anything of that nature. You pick it up pretty fast just being there, you know? Everybody talks a certain way and pretty soon, you start talking the same way and it just becomes part of your speech pattern after a while. And besides, I’m supposed to be Irish American, which is what John Wayne was when he did the Quiet Man. It was a similar story about someone who kills somebody in the boxing ring and later on, they have to come back and face the realities and what that cost.”

Although the father of six boys, whose Malibu neighbours include Mel Gibson and Pierce Brosnan, admits that Hollywood can be crazy, mad and extremely superficial, he says much of it is overly hyped and overrated.

“It’s a very, very aggressive business and a very manic way to make a living. And you know, Hollywood can be incredibly stale and overrated. The lifestyle is overrated. There’s not a lot of glamour. A lot of that stuff is in tabloids and papers and things like that. Believe me, I’ve been there and done that and been all over the whole scene, that whole Hollywood idea and I can tell you for sure it’s overrated. I just want to make a living. I just want longevity. I just want to work and all the rest of it isn’t important to me.

“I was never one of those people who was chased around by paparazzi and you know slugging photographers and that kind of thing. It wasn’t really my thing. I mean, I had lots of fun but I never became tabloid fodder and I was lucky. I did a million things before I became an actor. So I had life experience. I was an orderly in the hospital. I was an auto mechanic and I built a couple of race cars. I worked for a landscaper and a pipe fitter and I sold Christmas trees, drove tow trucks and worked in construction. I think a lot of the kids that are in Hollywood, they jump into the career and it’s all bullshit. You know what I mean? They’re making a lot of money and they’re living the high style and they never had any life experience at all. At least I have something to compare it to.”

Of the 70-odd movies that Michael has made, he says there are a few he is truly proud of and believes that Strength and Honour is going to be one of those. “I’ve made a lot of pictures and I don’t necessarily think that all of them are good. There’s a hand full of them that are made well and done by good people. I think Donnie Brasco, The Getaway, Reservoir Dogs and Thelma and Louise. I just did a picture in Canada called vice with Daryl Hannah; I play a pretty dark cop. I think that one is probably gonna to make a big deal next year. Along with this one - Strength and Honour.”

Michael says filming the movie was made a lot easier due to a great working relationship with director, Rochestown native, Mark Mahon. “Me and him understand each other very well. I met him on a couple of occasions and he told me about this dream he had to make this movie and you know, I know how difficult it is to raise money to make a picture and I know how difficult it is when you’re not considered to have any experience and how people can not really want to give you a chance.

“I know what it’s like to be the underdog and I know what it’s like to have people doubting you and I think that he went through a lot of that - a tremendous amount of it and so I have this great respect for him that he finally said, “Fuck it. I’m gonna go do this on my own,” and that’s exactly what he did. He had to convince a few people to let me play Sean. But once I showed up over here, everyone realised that he was a little wiser than what they gave him credit for.”

One of the things that undoubtedly surprises a lot of people who knows Michael only from the characters he plays in most movies, is that he writes poetry and has had some books published.

“I think there’s a lot of things that would surprise people but for whatever reason, I’ve played a lot of characters that are etched in people’s minds because of the violence behind them but I didn’t write any of that stuff, I just interpreted it. All the stuff I’ve written is mostly short stories and poetry and biographical stuff  and I didn’t really plan on it being a book, it just worked out that way.

“At one point in time, I was just going to destroy it and a friend of mine encouraged me to give it to a publisher instead. What’s good about it is that I look back on it now and I read a lot of stuff that I wrote a long time ago and I’m really glad I put it down because now I can see that there’s a memory of it and there’s a lot of lessons I learnt in my life and I learnt it all the hard way and if I can write that down and help someone else down the road who is going to read it, then they might be able to interpret it for themselves. You’re kind of almost a teacher in a way. You’re not going to learn everything there is to learn and God knows there’s a lot I have left to learn, but if I can pass anything on to anyone else then I’ve done my job, right?”

Leaving for the States just two days after we spoke, Michael says he would have loved to have stayed longer. With this being his first visit to Ireland, he says he’s come to love it so much, including the rain, that he’s planning on buying a place here himself.

“I liked Ireland so much that I didn’t really want to go. I wanted to look at some land and some property so I’d have some place to come back to. I’m just looking for 20 or 30 acres with a small house, some place I can keep a couple of horses. Nothing big, no big deal. I just know that if I had an address here, I’d probably come back and forth more often.”

“I’ve written a lot of things about Ireland, which will probably be in a book some day from my visit here. It would be pretty impossible to be here and not. I mean, it’s raining all the time and everybody has a lot of pub time and there’s the pub-crawl as they call it and there are a lot of things that put you in the mood of a writer. I’m sure that Beckett and some of those other characters got it from the mood of Ireland. It really gets a hold of you after a while. Travelling through the countryside - that was really educational to me and I also learned a lot about the history of the place, the difference between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

Michael names Kinsale pub ‘The Greyhound’ as a regular haunt of his during his stay, along with ‘The Spaniard’ and one of Ireland’s best known restaurants, Man Friday and Italian restaurant, Portofino’s in Kinsale.

“I’m gonna miss a lot of the people I worked here with. I met a lot of great people and made some good friends but when you’re in film, basically you’re just a part of a travelling circus and everyone’s just a bunch of carnival people and we’re all just moving from one location to another and finally when it’s over, the circus just leaves town and there’s a lot of people left behind wondering whatever happened and then you meet a lot of folks you’re never going to see again for the rest of your life so it’s kind of a neurotic way to live your life, but it’s what I’m doing.”

“You know, it’s funny cause I think I’m having more fun now than I ever was making movies cause I’m settled into it now, everything isn’t so serious. I’m more comfortable in my skin than I used to be.”

For more info on Strength and Honour, log onto www.strengthandhonourthemovie.com.