Almost famous (part one oftwo); Who are the next household names to

ACTING Colin Farrell (right) Right at the top of Ireland's Hollywood A-List of young actors, Farrell was born on March 31, 1976, in Castle Knock, Dublin. As the son of Irish footballer Eamon Farrell, he did intend to pull on the boots himself, but instead hopped off for a quick trip round Australia and enrolled in drama school on his return. It wasn't a bad decision - while he was attending classes at the Gaiety Drama School in Dublin, he auditioned for BBC1's Ballykissangel and got the part.

It was his first TV break, but the lure of cinema was too strong and before long Farrell was off to Hollywood to star in Joel Schumacher's Tigerland, about American soldiers taken to backwoods of Louisiana in 1971 to prepare for Vietnam, where he played Texan Roland Bozz. It won him the Best Actor Award from Boston Society of Film Critics and a handy monicker as the Irish Brad Pitt. After Tigerland came Ordinary Decent Criminals with Kevin Spacey and an appearance at the Donmar Warehouse in London in A Little World of Our Own.

Work has never been a problem for the highly photogenic Farrell, although his personal life has been less straightforward. He married film actress Amelia Warren (Lorna Doone, Take a Girl Like You) in July 2001 after a whirlwind romance. Alas, barely six months later they had filed for divorce.

Due to be seen in the critically acclaimed WWII PoW drama Hart'sWar with Bruce Willis, he will also be lining up shortly in Minority Report, a time-travel science fiction story with Tom Cruise, directed by Steven Spielberg. His latest feature is The Farm, widely regarded to secure his place as a major-league player. Playing a CIA agent, Farrell will star alongside Al Pacino before he starts filming Daredevil due for release next year, with Ben Affleck.

Flora Montgomery (left) Montgomery's most notable role to date for Scottish audiences at least, was in an episode of Monarch of the Glen, where she played a down-at-heel, aristocratic blonde temptress, planning to nab our Archie for his money. After starring in school plays like many an aspiring thesp, Montgomery, 27, headed for theatre and gave notable performances in Strindberg's Miss Julie as well as various productions in London's West End.

She was pinpointed, though, as one-to-watch after her starring role in When Brendan Met Trudy which was released just two years ago. She appeared with Pauline McLynn - Mrs Doyle in the Father Ted - but even so, the romantic comedy was none too successful at the box office or with the critics. (And having Kieron J Walsh announce that there were so few good-looking women in Ireland, when he set eyes on Montgomery he simply said, Thank God, probably didn't help).

Even a script by Roddy Doyle didn't improve matters. But it did give Montgomery, from Killyleagh, County Down, the publicity she needed and last year she starred in Discovery of Heaven alongside Stephen Fry and Greg Wise (Mr Emma Thompson). A product of the Dublin's Gaiety School of Acting, she is currently appearing in The Shape of Things with Cillian Murphy.

Cillian Murphy Born in Cork, Murphy first came to notice when he appeared in the Corcadora production of Enda Walsh's play, Disco Pigs. Although he was interested in acting at school, it wasn't until he was at University College Cork, studying law, that he decided to audition for the play. It was a huge success, taking him to Edinburgh, Toronto and Budapest, before he was cast in the film version.

Directed by Kirsten Sheridan, daughter of Jim "My Left Foot" Sheridan, in her debut feature, Disco Pigs told the violent but often funny rites-of-passage story of two 17-year-olds, Pig and Runt, who share a birthday and are inseparable friends. The success of his performance in the film meant a host of roles: as a soldier in The Trench by William Boyd, recently shown on BBC television; as a brash young Irishman in the US film Sunburn; as a suicidal young man in The Smiling Suicide Club. Oh, and with his handsome, baby-cute looks he also managed to bag the Favourite Actor Award in last year's GayIreland.com Poll results, just the thing to make his mum, a French teacher, very proud indeed.

After more leading roles in How Harry Became a Tree (2001) which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and On the Edge (2001), Murphy completed 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland and is currently appearing at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre production of The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute.

Elaine Cassidy At just 21, Cassidy has already amassed a pretty formidable and enviable CV of film and TV credits. Although she didn't say a word in her latest film where she played the mute maid Lydia in the Nicole Kidman vehicle The Others, she was creepily memorable.

Born in Dublin in 1980, Cassidy's break came with her appearance in Disco Pigs, where she played Runt to Cillian Murphy's Pig. But it was Atom Egoyan's film Felicia's Journey, where she starred in the title role opposite Bob Hoskins, that really set Cassidy on the path to fame, as she was nominated for a Most Promising Actress award at the Geneva Film Festival.

Her most recent appearance for British audiences came at Christmas when she starred alongside Bob Hoskins (again) and James Fox in the BBC production of the Arthur Conan Doyle adventure, The Lost World. But TV won't hold on to her for long - Cassidy is due to begin filming The Boy with another Hollywood legend, Holly Hunter.

Fashion Antonia Campbell Hughes She may be just 23, but fashion designer Antonia Campbell Hughes is certainly making her presence felt. Reflecting an internationalism, independence and faith in her own obvious talent, she launched her individual label over a year and a half ago at the influential Design Centre show and instantly became the focus for serious fashion mavens at home and abroad.

She studied for some time at Ireland's National College of Art and Design before graduating from the Grafton Academy, an institution specifically for fashion. During her time at college, she had already sampled work experience with designers such as Bella Freud (now designer-in-chief for Jaeger), Donna Karan and John Rocha. And last year she had an extended stint with Quin & Donnelly.

Known as Toni to those on the inside, her highly-tailored work is defined by its structure. The hard planes, sharp angular lines and asymmetric pleats of her coats and jackets all contrast strongly with soft, draping, curved hems and floating sleeves of her chiffon and satin dresses and blouses. This is powerful delicacy at its best. Her spring/summer 2002 collection, entitled Romancing Armour was presented at the recent Paris shows and her work is now stocked internationally in some of the most exclusive boutiques.

Leigh Tucker Unlike in Britain, being the next generation in an established Irish fashion dynasty is actually a constraint rather than an advantage. People who stick with the family trade are dismissed as being somewhat less than capable when the reverse is typically true. If you manage to satisfy the harshest critics of all, your flesh and blood, the average consumer is easy. And 28-year-old Dublin designer Leigh Tucker has certainly proved her elevated place in the fashion establishment.

Bringing one of the oldest Irish fashion families shooting into the future with her innovative designs, you can find her flattering designs in exclusive boutiques and mainstream department stores from Mexico to Singapore as well as the length and breadth of Ireland. But there are two sides to this girl. She's not only a creator; she's also got a clever commercial head.

Graduating from college in 1997, she noticed a gap in the clothing market for upmarket boutiques stocking unique rather than mass- produced garments. Four months later she opened Costume in the centre of Dublin and spent the next year immersed in the retail side of the business, working out of London's fashion district while her siblings looked after the shop at home. "But I wasn't using the craft I'd spent so many years learning," she explains, "so I came back to Ireland and claimed a small space downstairs in the shop as my designing area."

Sales took off quickly and, as her success expanded, Tucker moved into her own factory studio to create her signature tailored look, combining menswear fabrics with delicate and discreet feminine touches. With her label already gracing some of Ireland's most stylish people, now is the time to invest in a Tucker original.

Helen Cody Though she was once known as the bag lady, this is anything but a derogatory depiction of Helen Cody. It is instead a reference to her comprehensive conquering of the accessory market both nationally and internationally. If you want a couture handbag, Cody is the one to make it for you. And, with her current expansion into the clothing market, she'll make you an outfit you'll want to hang on to.

Another NCAD graduate, Cody established herself as a stylist for a number of major Irish publications. But she was far too inspired to limit herself to using other people's creations and three years ago she launched her first handbag collection. Last year she took this resourcefulness one step further and dipped her toe into the clothing market for the first time with a ready-to-wear range. It won the Peter Mark/Late Late Show Young Designer of the Year award.

Though her first outing was laced with her own tongue-in-cheek humour and modern angles, her next was the complete opposite: utterly elegant, utterly contemporary and utterly sexy. "I sympathise with the does-my-bum-look-big-in-this syndrome so there are no waistbands. I wanted the look to be as seamless as possible, so fewer bulges for the wearer," she says.

FOOD Abigail Colleran Just a couple of months ago, at the most prestigious event in the Irish culinary calendar, a 21-year old Mayo lass cooked up a storm to beat off severe male competition and walk away with the coveted title of Bailey's Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year.

Abigail Colleran may not have the profile yet of English counterparts such as Jamie "pukka" Oliver or Nigella "sex kitten" Lawson, but it can only be a matter of time. Currently serving her time as demi-chef de partie at the Dublin dining emporium Bang Cafe, she honed her gastronomic skills in Galway and is still pursuing further studies.

She was awarded the Euro-Toque crown after submitting an essay, undergoing an interview on food-related issues and participating in a culinary skills test for a critical panel of food experts. If that wasn't enough to curdle any milk, the five selected finalists were then required to prepare a gourmet luncheon for 100 assembled guests from the media and restaurant industries. But it's not all about the fame and acclaim. The icing on the cake of her culinary prize is an eight-week stage learning the ropes in Obauer, a top Euro-Toques restaurant 35km outside Satzberg in Austria.

ArchitectURE Tom de Paor (below) He lives in a house, a very big house in a graveyard. Well, actually, Tom de Paor doesn't live there yet, but he will, just as soon as he finishes building the thing, has the priest round to bless it, and plays plenty of AC/DC at the housewarming party.

The two words most often used to describe Ireland's hottest architect are "visionary" and "controversial", and when he invites you to visit his home it's not hard to see why. A concrete structure in the grounds of a Dublin church, the house will be breathtakingly contemporary when completed in June, but its most notable feature at the moment is that it is underground.

When construction began, they took 22 bodies out of the ground, all women and children, most likely victims of cholera or famine. You can understand why the archaeologists would be excited but doesn't de Paor find it rather unsettling? "Not at all. If you have any kind of spirituality at all you understand that they are just a husk. I find it quite comforting. This is good ground to be in."

He has loads of other projects on the go: homes in Donegal, Cork and India; a garden in Japan; some rethinking of the A13 motorway, and a small towerblock for the elderly. De Paor, 34, is fiercely enthusiastic and could theorise for ages about what makes his work special, but he puts it best when he says, "I just really like buildings."

politics Ivana Bacik (above) There are some people who do their best to draw attention to themselves and there are those to whom attention is naturally drawn. And Ivana Bacik is like an electrified magnet. Rarely out of the headlines, she somehow maintains a day job as Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin - a coveted post formerly held by both Mary Robinson and President Mary McAleese.

As editor of the Irish Criminal Law Journal since 1997 and the author of important works on human rights, constitutional law and criminology, it's clear she has earned the respect attributed to her by her peers. She co-ordinated an EU-funded study on rape law in different European jurisdictions and has carried out consultancy work with the Council of Europe and the International Labour Organisation.

But it is her extra-curricular work that has made Bacik one of the most high profile figures in recent Irish political debates. A fervent protester since her early college days, this is a woman who believes in action and follow-through rather than hollow promises made on election campaigns. A feminist campaigner and vocal pro- choice activist, her most recent platform was as the spokesperson for the Alliance for a No Vote group in the Abortion referendum held in Ireland at the beginning of the month and voice for the umbrella group Abortion Reform.

Something of an all-rounder when it comes to human rights, Bacik also raises her head above the parapet to broach unpopular refugee issues and even question the Irish legal system. This is one woman who might be wasted following her predecessors into the presidential job. There's a growing suspicion she would serve her country best as a future prime minister.

Copyright 2002
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