MEN'S ISSUE: Good dressers come in all shapes and sizes. Here, seven smart guys state their preferences
JAMES KELLY
film and documentary maker
JAMES KELLY is the man behind the cameras at Feenish Productions, a Dublin-based film and media production company that has been producing vibrant, entertaining and increasingly diverse work since 2001. “Making films for the internet is what I find most exciting at the moment, because it gives you immediate access to viewers all over the world.” His latest work is Camille O’Sullivan’s newly-released DVD Camille Live at the Olympia, which has already been seen by more than 30,000 people courtesy of YouTube.
He’s currently producing a short film for the Hugh Lane Gallery to promote the upcoming Francis Bacon centenary exhibition in October, and has worked with choreographers, theatre practitioners, sound artists and photographers in the production of various film projects. He is also a consultant to the Arts Council on new media and new audiences.
With a two-year-old daughter and a four-month-old son, “it is a victory to make it out the door in clean clothes these days,” he admits, with young Luke asleep in the pram beside him. But he grew up with a gra for great clothes: his grandfather’s clothing shop in Newry, Co Down, James V. Kelly, is still in the family and is now run by his uncle. He loves linen suits, and might call into Kelly’s for a suit or Canali jacket.
Here, he wears a standard Saturday uniform: Diesel jeans, Oxford light blue shirt and one of his favourite pairs of shoes, designed by John Rocha.
DAVID GERAGHTY, Google
“WE’VE GOT TO get technology integrated into the school system from primary level up, if we are to be a true knowledge economy. When you see schools like St Aidan’s in Tallaght, where the kids are collaborating on their school work using Gmail, Google docs and Google sites, it gives me a real buzz.” So says David Geraghty, online sales and operations manager at Google’s European headquarters in Dublin. He lives in Bettystown, Co Meath, and is originally from Drogheda. He has been working with the company since 2007 and his department supports millions of users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “My job is to ensure that everyone using Google products has the information they want, in whatever language they want it, wherever they happen to be. We now have five million students in 150 countries using Google apps in education, including students at Trinity College Dublin, UCD and DCU.”
Google is noted for its casual dress code; in summer many a Googlite would be working in flip flops. On this Friday, however, David was photographed wearing an Eton shirt from Chris Curtis Menswear in Drogheda, Co Louth, (€125) and Diesel jeans from Unit 1 in the town (around €110). His shoes come from Zara. As he travels often to San Francisco, American Eagle and Abercrombie Fitch are favourite haunts. He sports a Tag Heuer Kirium watch.
FOZZY STACK
horse trainer
SARTORIALLY, FOZZY STACK, son of legendary jockey Tommy, is a typical Irishman. With his father, who partnered Red Rum to fame and glory, he trains about 60 horses in their Tipperary yard; he’s having a good season this year, with about 20 winners to date. Fozzy is preoccupied with three fillies he’s hoping to run in the Goffs Million at the end of September: Walk on By, Gibraltar Blue and Capulet Montague. His long-term ambitions are to “train as many winners as we can and keep our heads above water”. His dream is to win a Derby or Grand National.
Around the yard and on the gallops, “it’s wellies, waterproofs, jacket and a hat – always”. Under the waterproofs are rugby shirts and shredded, 10-year-old jeans. When he socialises, or goes to informal racing meetings, it’s “smart casual, jeans and a shirt, sometimes a jacket”. His long-suffering girlfriend Lucy stresses the shirts are always blue. Sometimes she manages to sneak a stripe in, but Fozzy is profoundly committed to his blue shirts – as well as his long locks, of which he is immensely proud.
For racing, he likes navy Hugo Boss suits, a shirt (blue), and tie – he has a lucky (blue) tie with pink pigs on it. “I’m not a big man for brands,” he says. “If it fits, that’s good enough for me.” He makes an annual swoop on Kildare Village, getting shirts from Ralph Lauren and Thomas Pink, and shoes from Bally. At home, he shops in Davern’s of Cashel and the tack shop Sport of Kings. He’s quite low-tech, doesn’t wear a watch or even own an iPod – “I barely own a CD”. Down time is spent watching rugby, soccer, football – “anything with a ball”. A typical Irishman? Make that quintessential.
Fozzy is wearing a Carl Gross jacket (€295); Profuomo shirt (€79) and Hugo Boss jeans (€169), all from Davern’s of Cashel.
FERGAL SMITH
surfer
FERGAL SMITH discovered surfing through vegetable farming. Growing up outside Westport, Co Mayo, on the organic farm that his parents set up, meant that summer holidays had to be local in order to tend to the plots. Each year, the Smiths decamped to a mobile home near Achill, and it was there that Fergal, following in the footsteps of his older brother Kevin, first began tinkering around with a surfboard. “I had no idea that surfing was well established elsewhere in the country,” he says.
Gradually, he met some like-minds in Louisburgh, and heard about an upcoming national championships in Easkey, Co Sligo, so he turned up to try his luck. He was taken aback not just by the number of surfers, but the quality – although he did make it straight to the finals of the under-16s category that year.
There has been no looking back. Smith is just back from the world championships in Costa Rica, where he competed for Ireland in the Open section. “Shocking” is how he describes his performance.
Competitive surfing matters to Smith, in that he gets to represent his country, but the lure of big-wave surfing has proven irresistible. A recent film, Power of Three, chronicles his attraction to monstrous waves. It has accumulated five million hits online.
Funding is a constant problem – like all professional surfers, Smith is in the market for a corporate sponsor. Winter will be spent in Co Clare, surfing the choppy waters off the west coast on afternoons. “I can’t think of anything better to do.”
Clothes are not high on his priority list, but the Analog brand is his favourite. He popped into the Surf Shop in Lahinch for this shoot, and in Dublin, On Board, Great Outdoors and Quiksilver have all the gear.
BERNARD DUNNE
boxer
BERNARD DUNNE, the fighter with the cheeky grin, is the Dubliner who brought big-time world title boxing back to Ireland for the first time in 13 years. Following in the footsteps of former world champions Barry McGuigan, Steve Collins and Wayne McCullough, the WBA World Super Bantamweight champion defends his belt for the first time later this month. Once again the O2 Arena in Dublin is expected to be sold out, as Thai fighter Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym arrives next Saturday to try to take the prestigious belt.
The 28-year-old has been attracting huge audiences on RTÉ for his Saturday night fights, and has become one of the most popular sportsmen in the country. A brave and durable operator, he came back from two knock-downs to heroically win the title in Dublin last March against the fancied Panamanian Ricardo Cordoba.
“Bernard is leaving no stone unturned in order to successfully defend his title,” said promoter Brian Peters. “As each week goes by, he is cranking up the intensity of his work as he bids to see off the challenge.”
When Dunne, a former Trinity College Dublin student, turned professional, he went to learn his trade at the famous Wild Card gym in Los Angeles. He lives in Dublin but has been based in Belfast since July to prepare for the arrival of Poonsawat.
For this photograph, Bernard (pictured with his daughter Caoimhe) donned a classic navy blue Hugo Boss suit (€499) from Louis Copeland, whose shop on Capel Street is opposite the former gym where he started training as a young boy with his father. Consequently, he knows all the staff there well, and gets clothes there for all the special appearances and occasions that are now a part of his life between matches. The shirt is an Eton slim-fit cut for an athletic figure (€129.50), and he is wearing handmade Italian shoes (€369). “I’m strictly a boot and shoe man,” he says. “I’d never wear trainers outside the gym.”
JOHN CONCANNON
Fáilte Ireland
THE STOPOVER in Galway last summer of what came to be known as “The Volvo” – the round-the-world sailing race – was a triumph for the west and for Fáilte Ireland, not least for its regional development officer, John Concannon. While tourism, in the short term, looks challenging to say the least, the new obsession with adventure sports, endurance races, surfing and hardy walking, climbing and cycling trails has already created new opportunities and original thinking.
John was photographed last week on the beech at Doonbeg, Co Clare, while filming a new advertisement for the Discover Ireland campaign, using fab locations all around the country to highlight cultural, culinary, spa and sporting destinations. Its theme, for the international and domestic market, suggests that Ireland is still a great place to get away from it all. “Our strength of character, which is part of who we are, will get us through these next few difficult years,” he says. “The tourism industry itself is resilient and is constantly innovating.” Patsey Murphy
John is wearing a Canali suit (€1,015), shirt (€125) and Brioni tie (€135), all from Brown Thomas. His shoes (€140) are by Laoke, from Logues in Galway. He is wearing an Armani watch, a wedding present from his wife Mary (“priceless”).
ROB KEARNEY
rugby player
A GRAND SLAM, Heineken Cup and a pivotal role in the Lions test series against South Africa during the summer represents a stellar litany of success by any standards. At just 23 years of age, Rob Kearney has plenty of time to embellish his rugby career with further silverware but the memories of the past 12 months will be hard to muscle aside.
A swashbuckling presence at fullback during Ireland’s Grand Slam odyssey, he survived a bad case of the mumps that forced him to miss the Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Munster and reduced him to a cameo appearance as a late replacement during that tumultuous final win over the Leicester Tigers at Murrayfield.
Lee Byrne was handed the number-15 jersey for the first test against the Springboks but when he suffered an injury during the game, Kearney was summoned from the bench, grasping the opportunity with the same elan in which he plucked the Boks’ aerial barrage from the skies.
Although the Lions lost – the young Irishman scored a brilliant try in the second test – Kearney returned home, his burgeoning talent endorsed by the global rugby community. He has been a prodigiously gifted footballer from his schoolboy days in Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare but the trick for any young sportsperson is to deliver at the highest level. Still in the foothills of his career and intelligently receptive in learning terms, he possesses the ability to go on and prove to be not just a great rugby player, but one of the best.
On the day these photos were taken, Rob Kearney’s younger brother David made his debut appearance for Leinster on the left wing. Rob is wearing a One Like No Other paisley shirt (€175), True Religion jeans (€295), an Operations NYC peacoat (€595), DC Co leather boots (€120), and an Operations NYC belt (€60), all from Gentlemen Please, 47 Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin, with thanks to Alan Kelly.