Never needing a scarf, absolutely nailing the lumberjack look and odds-on being the manliest man in just about any saloon you breeze into – those are the obvious perks of cultivating a glorious beard.

However, Dublin musician and style guru Ger Eaton discovered a less obvious bonus when he landed a role recently as an extra in BBC’s Ripper Street. The popular Victorian detective drama is set in London in the late 19th century in the wake of the notorious Jack The Ripper murders. Filming is well underway for the third season and our own cobbled roads, aged façades and iffy weather have made Dublin the perfect place to craft convincing 1890s East End sets.
Location aside, the show also demands an army of ladies and gentlemen to roam the streets of fake London as background actors. That’s where The Carnival Brothers frontman and Las Vegas Basement veteran comes in.
“I was always thinking I should get into this kind of stuff,” he says, recalling his decision to have a stab at the role. “It’s since I grew the beard, to be honest. I’ve been thinking, ‘I should get some money out of this!’”
A friend of his, Dave McGuinness – lead singer with Lir – had connections in the programme’s casting department and, a few head-shots later, the ball was rolling.
Ger has a distinct look. While others might squirm into ornate waistcoats and lavish cravats, they’ve been staples of Ger’s day-to-day attire for decades. All Ripper extras need to be vetted in person: he was nearly the finished article on arrival.
“When I went in, they just took a look at me and basically said ‘what you’ve got on is grand’. The only thing they changed was my jacket and everything else is my own,” he says. Sadly, he doesn’t get to keep the jacket.
The sets have drawn praise for the accuracy of their painstaking detail. It’s no wonder, with a building department that works literally round-the-clock.
“The sets are amazing,” Ger nods. “They’ve just constructed the whole main street and the main buildings that they use at Clancy Barracks. When everybody’s in costume and you see all these people strolling around the streets, it’s just like you’re looking at a scene from a movie. It’s so well done. It’s surreal. To see them on their iPhones is even weirder.”
For Ger, it isn’t the pursuit of the “big time” that gets him into that beard and make-up chair in the morning – he’s just going along for the ride. But with the likes of Vikings and Penny Dreadful also shooting in Dublin, he may have more work on his hands yet.
“There’s a few around and a lot of period ones, where if you’ve got a beard, you could easily get into them. I’m hot stock at the moment, so let’s roll with it!” he says with a chuckle. “You might see me as a viking next, who knows?”