Julie Helen: 'Partnership is precious and makes equality a reality'

It was extremely satisfying to wake up after Oscars night and see that Jessie Buckley had won the statuette for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ for her performance in Hamnet. It was special because she is the first Irish actress to land that particular accolade.

If you look back on older interviews, you will see Brenda Fricker, who was the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award for a supporting role, predict that Jessie would win in the future.

Here we are now years later, and she was right and Jessie is winning a string of awards.

The loveliest thing about Fricker and her prediction was that she said it publicly and not just when the younger up-and-coming actress was beside her. Brenda was building up a colleague in a room she wasn’t in. That is true and real support.

Awards season, by its nature, is peers or actors and film and television professionals and creative people patting each other on the back. Critics are often those who have been in the industry for years. Some may view it all as a bit of pageantry, but I think it’s really important.

I think women like Jessie Buckley and men like Paul Mescal are paving the way for true and real equality.

Let me explain why Paul is important in the whole thing for me as an onlooker. I haven’t seen Hamnet yet, but all reviews tell me that he was also incredible in his role alongside Jessie. Their relationship and chemistry were important to on screen success.

I believe their relationship also plays an important part in how Jessie is held aloft right now. When she won the Golden Globe, she gushed about her co-star and fellow Irish man and when her Oscar was announced he embraced her with such genuine delight it can only have lifted her even higher. Irish acting is having a real moment and it is great to see.

There is something beautifully ordinary about Jessie Buckley, like as if she could be any one of us if our stars had aligned that way. She is working, and she is a mum, and a new mum at that. Hats off to her for working with a tiny baby. Hats off to her for referencing the chaos of motherhood. Kudos to her for firstly keeping her husband Fred private, because that is what he wanted, but then for bringing him forward for the largest celebration and ensuring the focus on both of them remained on his support for her and their collective endeavours of having babies together.

Kudos to Fred in the same breath, for going with her, for showing up publicly and privately so she could succeed in the pursuit of her dreams. Big or small, partnership is precious and it is truly what makes equality a reality.

On a smaller scale on the same night, Katelyn Cummins, our Rose of Tralee, won Dancing with the Stars, after weeks of delighting us on our small screens. She was already breaking barriers by being an apprentice electrician but then in her final performance we heard the music switch to simulate what she hears as a person with a hearing impairment.

It was such a powerful moment for her to reveal that piece of vulnerability in the final, after she had proven her prowess. She gave us a subtle lesson in being authentic without shoving it in our face and she reminded us that each element of our story is just part of us.