What does The Producers' Matthew
Broderick need to produce a perfect getaway among the rolling
green hills of Ireland? A few chip shops, a cozy cottage, and
(curiously) the smell of burning peat.
Matthew Broderick is going to take you on an adventure, one that
he's been taking for most of his life. It's a journey to a magical
place four hours outside of
Dublin,
Ireland, a seaside town called
Killybegs that his parents discovered and passed on to him when
Broderick, a native New Yorker, was 10 years old. Making his stage
debut at age 17 opposite his father, Broderick went on to become a
sensation on Broadway, winning two Tony awards. He became a
superstar in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and, as an adult, he's
starred in scores of films, including Glory, Biloxi Blues, and
Election. He's broken all records on Broadway as Leo Bloom, the
mousy accountant suckered by Nathan Lane's bottom-feeder producer
in The Producers, and is now starring opposite Lane onstage in The
Odd Couple.
Broderick reprises his role in the movie version of The Producers,
along with Lane and
Uma Thurman. But this summer, he'll be flying
into Dublin with his wife,
Sarah Jessica Parker, and their
three-year-old son, James, following the route that his parents
took so many years ago. They'll disappear into the world his folks
fell in love with in the middle of nowhere, where they bought a
second home and where Broderick and his family now have a home,
too.
This is the same adventure on which he's about to take you. You'll
fall asleep, if you're lucky, for the four-hour drive from Dublin
to Killybegs, which Broderick admits "people may have never heard
of." When you awaken, he promises, "your eyes pop out of your
head," and this is what you will discover.
Okay, start at the beginning. My father has Irish heritage.
My mom took a trip to Ireland - a very short trip - and when she
saw Ireland, she was like, "I've got to take my husband here
because he will be amazed to see all his relatives." They went back
a little while later and drove all around Ireland. They stopped on
part of a road that they thought was beautiful, near a beach, and
there was a little bed-and-breakfast in this little village,
Killybegs. They ended up renting a house and getting us children
over there. They got to know the woman - whom I know to this day -
who owned that house. They stayed with her, and she sort of found
the house for them to rent, and they ended up buying one. So they
really just happened upon it. We'd spend the summer there. After
renting for a year or two, my parents bought a little bungalow
right on the ocean and I started going there from the time I was
about 10 years old. I've been there pretty much every summer and
many Christmases. Now I have a little house right next to my
parents' house.
Can you still stay in the bed-and-breakfast your parents
found? The woman, Maggie O'Donnell, is still there, but she
does not do that anymore. She rents out the little cottage next to
her house. The whole family used to live in a cottage that is next
door, and it is perfectly preserved. The only way you can find her
is to drive from Killybegs toward a town called Kilcar and stay on
the coast road. About two miles before you get to Kilcar, I think
you would just have to ask somebody, "Where is Maggie O'Donnell's
house?" They don't even have numbers on the houses. It's a gray,
two-story building, and next to it is a cottage. They rent out that
cottage.
What's there to do in that little town? Nothing! I mean,
there's fishing. There are some nice rocks right below the house
where you can fish for mackerel and flat fish called plaice, which
is kind of like a flounder. The people fish in streams around
there, too, but I don't. There is a lot of fishing. There is
beautiful, beautiful hiking. It's so green because of the rain. The
downside is you could spend a month there and barely get out
because it just rains. It's incredibly lush, and there are not many
trees, just rolling green hills with massive cliffs that go
straight into the ocean. It's very dramatic. The main attraction to
me is, honestly, the people, the farmers who have been there
forever and ever. These families I have known my whole life are so
interesting. They farm sheep, mostly.
Where can you stay if you don't have a home there? Millions
of little bed-and-breakfasts, just people's homes you can stay in.
There are also fancy hotels nearby. One is called Harvey's Point,
which is really beautiful. That is a great place to stay and a
great place to eat. Then there is a hotel in St. John's Point
called Castle Murray. That's a lovely spot.
What were your impressions of Killybegs as a kid? I just
remember how green it was, just the amount of rolling, bright green
hills that you see. It's just stunning. Of course, my first memory
was the peat in the fireplaces, the smell of burning peat
everywhere, which I loved. I loved that we had this big stove and
that I got to help load it with peat. It smells really good. I
don't know how to describe it. It smells like peat. There is a
whiskey called Lagavulin Whiskey that everyone says is very peaty.
If you want to know what peat smells like, you have to have a
little drink of that and maybe you will know.
Speaking of drinking, where would you go have a pint or a
shot? You can have great Guinness and whiskey. At
Christmastime, everyone has a bottle at their house, basically, and
you can do little shots of whiskey. In Kilcar, there are all these
really wonderful pubs. If you just look in the local paper, you can
[find out where to] hear whatever kind of music you want. I'm not a
huge bar person, but there is a pub called John Joe's in Kilcar
where I would go to hear music. It's just a pretty simple pub, and
then in the back is a big room with chairs and then just wonderful
local musicians that change every night. I always like to hear
traditional Irish music. There were these young girls called the
Wee Band. They were just these beautiful young Irish girl singers.
They had the prettiest voices. There is also a pub called the
Piper's Rest, which is a really old village house with a nice
fireplace and very comfortable seats and a beautiful old bar with
extremely nice bartenders. When you go into a pub there, it's like
you are going into somebody's home, in a way. Very friendly.
What kind of food do they have in the pubs? When they have
food, it is very simple but usually very good. Some of them have
good fish, sometimes salmon or stews, often Irish stew. It depends
on the size of the pub. Often, people sort of stagger out of the
bar and over to the chip shop - which is across the street - where
they have
fish-and-chips and burgers. I like all of them. There's a
nice chip shop in the middle of Kilcar. In Killybegs, there's one
called Melly's Café. Dunkineely, which is just an old-fashioned
little one-road town, has a really good chips place. It probably
has a name, but I don't remember it. But there is only one of
them.
Tell us about the places you love the most. Glencolumbkille
is a really, really beautiful town, much bigger and probably more
tourist-friendly. It has kind of a folk museum in it. It has
beautiful beaches. There is one called the Silver Strand. You have
to walk down a million steps carved into the side of the hill. When
you get down there, there's an enormous horseshoe-shaped beach that
is really, really beautiful. It's very simple. There's no beach
club or anything like that. It's just very natural, an Atlantic
beach with perfectly white sand and lots and lots of it. It is so
beautiful because there is a cliff right behind you.
Then you get back in your car and keep driving? Yes. Another
very nice town to drive to and look at and that is very pretty is
called Ardara. It has another really spectacular beach, called
Maghery Beach. I've never seen anything in the world that looks
remotely like it. It's like being in the middle of the Sahara.
There's so much sand you have to walk for about a mile just to get
from the end of the grass to the water. There are caves on the edge
of the shore that, if the tide is out, you can go into. They are
really, really beautiful. Basically, it's not a big activity place.
It's a place that, if you like it, what you like about it is that
you can kind of read a book for three hours if you feel like it, or
you can take a two-hour hike. You can go to the market and then try
to figure out how to cook something that you haven't tried before.
It's that kind of lifestyle.
What are the market and shops there like? They are nice, but
it's not
France. You can't go get a wonderful baguette and a
homemade garlic salami, for example. But you'll find the food in
this area of Ireland is simple. In Dublin, I think you can eat
absolutely spectacular food. There's a nice shop in Donegal Town
called Magee Clothing. It's a department store, which has old
tweed, which is great. Studio Donegal is a really great store for
wool, knitted stuff, and tweed. You can get absolutely beautiful
jackets, sweaters, blankets, socks - all handmade and really,
really beautiful colors. The stuff sells in fancy stores in New
York, like Paul Stuart. But it comes from this tiny little factory
in the town of Kilcar called Studio Donegal. That's an absolutely
wonderful little shop. I would recommend it.
How did you first tell your wife about this little place in the
wilds of Ireland? I think I had a picture and said, "My family
has a house there. We should go there sometime." She was curious. I
took her there when my mom was alive, and we all stayed at my mom's
house. Luckily for me, Sarah just immediately took to Ireland. I
basically just took her to those places I told you about. I think
the first time we went there, we weren't married yet.
So, the first time you took Sarah there, you flew into Dublin
from New York, right? Then what did you do? Then we had this
four-hour trip. We would rent a car, but now I own a car there. You
can rent a car and just drive up the coast from Dublin - well, you
kind of cross the country. Or, what I usually do is hire a local
driver from the town where we go, and he comes and picks us up. I
don't know the name of the highway. You follow signs to Donegal,
basically. You can't miss it. You arrive there pretty exhausted,
usually, because you've left at night and now the sun is coming up
in Ireland. The best thing I would recommend for someone going to
Ireland from New York would be to at least spend a few nights in
Dublin or wherever you land before venturing out.
What did Sarah think of it at first? The first thing we did
was have breakfast somewhere. She was crazy for the tea. They have
these huge breakfasts there. They call it a fry, and it includes
bacon, a fried egg - basically a basted fried egg - and usually a
sausage and some baked beans. That's a traditional Irish breakfast,
which Sarah happened to love. It's just the kind of place she
likes. She loves having tea and biscuits and sitting by a fire.
It's kind of a cozy type of lifestyle. I think we had breakfast
right in the Dublin airport, in this place called Bewley's, which
is a little bit of a chain. In Dublin, if you want really good
old-fashioned tea and coffee and foods like that, you'll want to
go to Bewley's. There is one in the airport and then there is one
that is really pretty on Grafton Street.
Yeah. You fall asleep in the car, hopefully. Then when you get up,
your eyes pop out of your head. You can't believe how pretty it is.
Sarah just really loved it; she was really thrilled. She really
took to the people. Now, we have come back with our little boy,
too, which has been really fun because the people there are very
kid-friendly. They like having children over, and there are a lot
of little children on our road. James just turned three, and he's
been there twice. He has a picture in his room of the house, which
he calls the "cozy cottage." He constantly wants to go there.
Partly because when we are there, we are not working, and it's just
the whole family at home all the time. For him, that was really
great. He also likes our car there. There are all these neighbors
who come and play with him. There are huge fields to run around.
There are sheep everywhere, and he likes to look at them. Horses
walk by. It's kind of a paradise for a little kid.
Anything wild, funny, or interesting happen to you there when
you were younger? I borrowed a cat when I was about 10 years
old. We had mice in Ireland, and I borrowed a friend's cat to put
in the house a while and kill the mice, but the cat hid behind the
curtain in terror basically the whole time. He never got any mice;
he was useless. I took the cat to bring it back. I was carrying it
up the road and this huge German shepherd ran out of a house and,
seeing this cat in my arms, leaped on me and bit me on the hand. I
just threw the cat into a bush. The cat did eventually get home,
but I lost the cat and had a cut on my hand. But I didn't tell
anybody. I told my parents that I cut my hand on a fence. The next
morning, the postman came to our house we were renting and said, "I
hear Joe Bresland's German shepherd bit you in the hand." My
parents then found out the whole story. That's what a small town it
is. You can't hide anything.
he said …
where matthew broderick rolls among ireland's green hills
lodging
castle murray house hotel, st. john's point, dunkineely,
011-353-74-973-7022,
www.castlemurray.com
harvey's point country hotel, near donegal town,
011-353-74-972-2208,
www.harveyspoint.com
dining
john joe's pub, kilcar, 011-353-74-973-8015
melly's café, killybegs, 011-353-74-973-1093
the piper's rest, kilcar, 011-353-74-973-8205
attractions
maghery beach, killybegs road, 3 kilometers outside of
ardara
silver strand beach, county donegal,
10 kilometers southwest of louisburgh
town of killybegs,
www.killybegsonline.org
shopping
bewley's, dublin, 011-353-1-672-7720,
www.bewleys.com
magee clothing, donegal town,
011-353-74-972-1100,
www.mageeclothing.com
studio donegal, kilcar, 011-353-74-973-8194,
www.studiodonegal.ie
we said...
where we roll in dublin, away from ireland's green hills
lodging
the clarence, very expensive, 011-353-1-670-9000, www
.theclarence.ie. it's your vacation, so why not travel like a rock
star? that's definitely the vibe you'll get here, and only in part
because bono and the edge from u2 are among the owners. splurge for
the penthouse - where else are you going to put your posse? - and
you can even rock out on the grand piano.
harrington hall, moderate to expensive, 011-353-1-475-3497,
www.harringtonhall.com.
you'll live like a lord at elegant harrington hall (the former
residence of a mayor of dublin), but you won't pay like one. along
with the eighteenth-century georgian touches and a staff that aims
to please, they even throw in a hearty irish breakfast.
dining
eden, expensive, 011-353-1-670-5372,
www.edenrestaurant.ie. the
temple bar area can be a tad touristy, but we're happy to make the
trek for a meal at this well-groomed global café, where the chefs
whip up organic entrées like thyme risotto and roast fillet of
monkfish with fennel chutney and butternut squash.
leo burdock's, inexpensive, 011-353-1-454-0306. can you
imagine supermodel
naomi campbell scarfing down a plate of greasy,
finger-lickin' fish-and-chips? it's true. she's just one of the
many fans - celebrity and otherwise - of this well-trod takeout
spot near dublin castle and christ church cathedral.
shopping
house of ireland, 011-353-1-671-1111,
www.houseofireland .com. family or friends couldn’t join you in dublin? then pick up something nice for them from this top spot for souvenirs, whose inventory includes everything from claddagh rings to galway crystal.
attractions
dublin writers museum, 011-353-1-872-2077, www .writersmuseum.com. it’s a little odd that an institution dedicated to the country’s greatest writers would feature a free audio guide, but that’s quickly forgotten once you begin exploring the generous exhibits and artifacts chronicling ireland’s rich literary history, which includes such classics as ulysses, dracula, and gulliver’s travels.
guinness storehouse, 011-353-1-408-4800,
www.guinness storehouse.com. if we didn’t already tilt the elbow every now and again, we’d probably take up drinking after a trip to this museum of froth. housed in the brewing giant’s former fermentation room, the site reveals the process behind the world-famous suds. it also includes a rooftop bar offering one of the best views of the city — all the better to enjoy your free pint.