On its arrival in 2018, Sally Rooney’s second novel was positively showered with awards, from the Costa to Waterstones Book of the Year – and now a 12-part adaptation on the BBC has followed suit. Tracing an across-the-tracks relationship from school to university and beyond, Normal People has proved more than worthy of the book, beautifully filmed in Ireland and further afield.
For Carricklea, the fictional home town of main players Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), the production headed to Tubbercurry (aka Tobercurry) in Sligo. Here, residents reported a full Christmas tree in the square in the middle of summer, as well as out-of-season New Year’s revels celebrated in Brennan’s pub on Teeling Street – see the final episode for the results. Other locations used included St John the Evangelist Church (in episode 10) and Killoran’s Pub, while the cast stayed at the Sligo Park Hotel. When we see Marianne and Con at the beach, in the dunes or walking the sands, that’s Streedagh Point, to the north of Sligo (pictured above).
For the homes of our two leads, the production moved elsewhere. Marianne’s rather grand house is in fact in Enniskerry in Wicklow, half an hour from Dublin, and was originally part of the village’s Powerscourt Estate, while Connell’s terraced home was shot in Shankill, in south Dublin.
It’s to the capital that the story, and the cameras, then move for their university years at Trinity College Dublin (pictured above), alma mater both of Rooney and the series’ co-director Lenny Abrahamson. The production went direct to the source to film in the venerable institution itself, making use of the Robert Emmet Theatre, the library and cricket pitches as well as the front square. There are also scenes in the city’s pubs, including the Blackbird on Rathmines Road Lower for a pool game. Marianne’s flat, meanwhile, is on Wellington Road in Ballsbridge, an appropriately smart-bohemian area full of 19th-century builds.
While the Dublin views are lovely, there’s further beauty in the shape of Marianne’s family villa in Italy. While the book puts this in Trieste (pictured above), the house used is Il Casale in Tenuta di Verzano, near Sant’Oreste, about 25 miles north of Rome (with the pool and wonderful views we see in the series, it’s available to rent on Airbnb). When Marianne and Con go shopping, they’re in nearby Stimigliano; they eat ice cream in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, in front of the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano.
Marianne’s next stop is Sweden, filmed in the northern town of Luleå, on the Gulf of Bothnia near the border with Finland. The amazing scene of the frozen Baltic Sea is real – an annual phenomenon, with residents skating to nearby islands. Café scenes, however, weren’t filmed here but back home in Dublin: she has dinner with Lukas (Lancelot Ncube) in Forest Avenue restaurant and drinks coffee alone in The Fumbally café, rather than in any of the town’s real-life establishments. A little lie (and in the last scene, the snow is faked, too) but, as with everything in this excellent drama, it totally convinces.
‘Normal People’ is streaming on BBC iPlayer now [May 2020]
Scroll down for more pictures of ‘Normal People’…
Like this? Now read:
Where was White Lines filmed?
Where was ‘White Lines’ filmed?
The 11 top beaches in Ireland
The top beaches in Ireland to visit this summer
Best things to do in County Kerry, Ireland
10 Amazing Things To Do In County Kerry, Ireland
"