Matthew and SJP
ACTOR Matthew Broderick has spoken of his love for County Donegal – and why he and his wife Sarah Jessica Parker adore coming here.
Broderick says he feels like a local, having spent so many childhood summers here.
And he says it’s the local people and their protection of them which has made Donegal so special over the years – revealing how a local farmer chased one tabloid snapper through fields!
“I’m not going this summer, my sisters are going,” said Matthew.
“My parents bought a place there when I was about eight. And my sisters and I have inherited it and I’ve taken my kids. It’s up near Killybegs and Kilcar.”
“Donegal, it’s unbelievable. It gave me a whole new childhood in a way. I grew up in New York City, I was born and raised here, so the fact that my parents managed to put the money together to get us there was a great gift to us.
“You know the landscape, the hiking but it’s also the people there that I grew up knowing. Real farmers who worked the hay in the summer and milked cows. I really, really got to know my neighbors and that just doesn’t happen in the same way here in the U.S. We just really felt welcomed there. It’s another culture, a wonderful place.”
Broderick’s lifelong affection for the place is palpable when he speaks.
“People would say it’s special because of the sea air. I remember how deeply I would sleep there. It was so quiet, the smell of the turf fires, and the hay. I used to love helping with the hay,” he said of his childhood days in Donegal.
“Most of the people in Donegal knew me long before I was an actor. But even since then they don’t talk that much about it, which is very nice. My wife still gets it, some people’s eyes pop out of their head when she walks around but not our neighbours.”
The locals are very protective of the famous pair, he said.
“A photographer was after us one time and a neighbour got on his 4×4 motorbike and chased him. I just remember watching as this photographer was running with this farmer trying to run him over. He wasn’t even speaking, he was just running away,” he laughed.
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