At home with Jenny Buckley

One suspects that Jenny Buckley is a home bird who hasn’t quite got the wanderlust gene. Having grown up in the Howth suburb of north County Dublin, she now lives about five minutes away on the Baldoyle Road in Sutton, in a renovated cottage with her husband Gareth and her er, pet dog called Snuggles.

“It was a fairly small and very dilapidated cottage when we bought it about three years ago. It wasn't even liveable at the time, but there was something really cute about it. We had to take the roof off and do lots of other stuff. Fortunately my husband was able to so a lot of the work on it himself in his spare time and we added on a fair-sized extension, and we just love it now. It’s peaceful, tranquil and quite minimalist.”
Buckley sees her home as something of a refuge from work, and the fact that it’s a mere three minutes from the sea is another attraction. “I grew up near the sea, and I can’t imagine myself wanting to live anywhere that was not very close to a seashore,” she claims.
The cottage itself is very quiet, but then it’s a generally quiet neighbourhood. “A lot of the neighbours are older and there aren’t many young kids around. It’s totally safe, and although we’re near a busy road, the cottage has a long garden in front of it so the noise is more of a feature than a problem. The DART is also nearby and they’ve put new concrete down which has made it noisier, but it doesn’t bother us.”
Another attraction for the location is that Buckley wanted to stay close to her parents, and it’s also convenient for restaurants and pubs. “Obviously it’s easy to get into the city centre from here, but we also use the local restaurants and pubs. We go to Casa Pasta in Howth and on Saturday nights we often head to The Skyy View Bar in Wright’s Pub. So most of what we need can be enjoyed without having to go too far,” she says
Working in television, for some, means that they can’t ever watch the small screen without work intruding, but Buckley seems to have the balance worked out. “I can really switch off when I need to and just crash out and watch something like Skins. I think it’s fantastic, with great characters, and the storylines are amazing. But I often watch something like Richard And Judy to learn from their techniques from a work point of view. I think they’re terrific.”
But radio doesn’t feature as high up in the Buckley household. “I’m more of a casual listener to radio. I tend to flick around the stations. I don’t have any real favourites, although I think Spin is really good. I like to pick up their regular news coverage whenever I get the chance.” Her approach to music isn’t quite as casual, although she would admit to feeling under no pressure to keep up with the latest trends. “I download a lot of stuff for my iPod. The last CD I bought was ‘Grace Kelly’ by Mika,” she tells me. She also has a copy of a Christina Aguilera hits compilation lurking at the back of her collection, but her secret is safe with me.
Her current reading matter is Empress Orchid, set in 19th-century China, by the Shanghai writer Anchee Min. “I’m not a great reader, so you’re more likely to find books of plays than anything else here,” she explains. Indeed, she had a sizeable collection of play scripts from her acting days, including some of the works of Frank McGuinness and Arthur Miller. “I think Miller is fantastic. I haven’t done any acting for years, but maybe someday I’ll get back to it again,” she says, somewhat wistfully.
Despite the absence of the smell of home cooking or incense, there’s a freshness about the cottage that Buckley puts down to the use of those new plug-in air fresheners. In fact she laughs at the very idea of making bread, as if it’s not too high on her agenda, but says she might get around to it “one day”. Home cooking might be almost as popular with her as DIY, since she admits that changing a plug or replacing a fuse are tasks that are beyond her.
The house is airy and has a sense of spaciousness, probably helped by an absence of clutter. Buckley explains that she’s quite happy with a minimalist approach. “We have some vases which were mostly wedding presents, but we’re not that bothered about buying stuff just for the sake of it. We have some paintings by Marky Robinson who my husband’s a big fan of. But we also ramble into Merrion Square to have a look at the paintings there and if we see something we like we might buy it. We also big fans of Alan Daly.”
As it happens, Buckley’s most treasured possession is a landscape painting of the Aran Islands by Robinson. “It’s very dramatic and I just love the colours in it, with all those thick dark strokes. I can’t imagine ever parting with it and it’s the kind of painting that I think would fit in anywhere.”
Not that Buckley has any plans or desires to move on. “Obviously at some point we might start a family and the cottage might become too small. But I can’t imagine moving very far from where we are now. Everything we need is very handy.”
And as for the aforementioned Snuggles the dog? Well he’s not quite the small cuddly poodle his name might have suggested. In fact he’s a Westie, the cuddly West Highland white terriers often seen on birthday cards or on chocolate boxes. More often than not, they tend to be belligerent and vicious animals, renowned for biting people. True to form, Snuggles is more likely to feature on the cover of the Securicor News. “He’s not too fond of strangers, but he’s a great watch dog,” Buckley explains to me, without much comfort. Just to be on the safe side, I’ll take her word for it.
Jenny Buckley presents Access Hollywood – covering events and celebrities in the entertainment industry -on Channel 6 on Wednesdays at 11:20pm and Sundays 7pm.