It's almost a year since Vogue Williams has been in Ireland and she’s feeling really deprived of a decent bag of fish and chips. The model and TV personality spoke to Ryan Tubridy from London about missing Ireland, the birth of her second child this summer and the joys of a good chipper.
Hearing that Ireland is about to enter its second lockdown made Vogue particularly downbeat: "When I heard that news about Ireland yesterday, my heart just sank for so many businesses that probably won’t make it through all of this and I just feel terrible for them."
The birth of Vogue’s daughter, Gigi Margaux, a brother for two-year-old Theodore, in travel-restricted July, meant that very few of the family have actually met her in real life.
"My mum has met her and my stepdad has met here and that’s kind of it of my whole family, so… still kind of waiting."
We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Ryan declared that he always thinks of Vogue as a home bird and he knows well that she loves Howth in County Dublin, so how does she square this love of Ireland in general and Howth in particular, with living in London?
It’s obviously a tricky one because once Vogue gets talking about Howth, it’s clear that she really does love and miss it:
"I miss everything about Howth. I miss all my friends. Like, Howth is kind of its own little bubble. I love the cliff walk. I just – when I get home to Ireland, it doesn’t even necessarily have to be Howth, just being home in Ireland, I think when you’re Irish, you just have that in your blood and it’s just there forever. Ireland will always be home and I haven’t been back since November, so almost going on a year and it’s the longest obviously I’ve ever been away and it’s the nicest country ever. I really miss Irish sausages."
We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
And that’s when we get to the real (ahem) meat of the piece: the food. You can get your Barry’s Tea from Amazon (and Vogue does) but you can’t send sausages through the post (imagine: Postman + sausages + dogs = an unmade Kevin Costner movie).
You also can’t of course source Irish burger and chips when you’re in London and Vogue is a big fan of Irish chippers. Irish chippers are the best, according to Vogue. When Ryans asks what she would order if she were standing in Leo Burdock’s chipper in Howth right now, Vogue doesn’t hesitate:
"Quarter pounder with chips, garlic sauce, so much vinegar on my chips, it starts leaking through the box and a little bit of salt."
She says it with such relish that Ryan decides he’s heading to the chipper after work ("Send me a picture!" says Vogue). Ideally, she tells Ryan, Vogue would eat her Irish chipper meal in her new house in Howth, which she bought in March, but has yet to set foot in. Another casualty of the pandemic. But as soon as restrictions are lifted, Vogue is headed straight for her new house. Via the chipper, of course.
