Batman and RTÉ star reveals heartwarming reason for moving back to Ireland

The Irish actor told JOE that the move was more to do with romance than career opportunities.

The actor recently returned to Dublin after spending over 20 years in Los Angeles, a change which seemed to coincide with the IFTA-winner landing high-profile roles in several Irish shows. These include Smother, Irish Blood and the upcoming These Sacred Vows.

Speaking to O'Mara at a roundtable for the new RTÉ series out this weekend, which is about a wedding in Tenerife that goes horribly wrong, JOE asked him if the rise in Irish movies and shows being made in the past few years was a factor in his decision to move back.

It turns out this was not the case. The main reason for O'Mara's return was romance, as the actor has fallen for fellow Irish star Catherine Walker (A Dark Song, The Delinquent Season).

These Sacred Vows Trailer

"My decisions to move back were more personal, really. I met someone here, Catherine Walker, who's an Irish actress. We're getting married next year," he said.

Jason O'Mara also recounted to the press that he and Walker met through his sister, who set them up, stating:

"She said: 'I have a friend who kind of fancies you,' and I was like: 'Who's that?'

"Then I sent a very forward text, which Catherine says looking back, she tried to pour some cold water on it because… I came in hot.

"Initially we were meeting for tea in Bewley's, which turned into dinner, which turned into a kiss by the Liffey in the rain.

"It does sound lovely, doesn't it, when you put it like that. But I mean, it's always raining in Ireland.

"She lived on the north side. I lived on the south side. We're star-crossed lovers."

O'Mara also said he feels like Ireland has "welcomed its arms" to him, since the move.

"My brother and sister, who were living abroad, have moved back," he added.

"So we're all here. I have a niece and nephew now, my brother's kids in Bray. My own son is in his last year in college. So, it all started to make sense, really.

"It was during the pandemic that I started to feel this way. I actually went to Ireland to film the third season of Smother with Justine [Mitchell, who is also in These Sacred Vows]...

"That was when the penny started to drop. I was like: 'I miss home. I think it's time to go back.'

"It just took a few years for it to get in motion, really. It takes some time. It was a big decision moving back.

"I still have representation [in LA] and I'm still going up for projects there.

"But I think just as the fires in LA in January were a sign to sort of get out, this project in April in Ireland was a sign that I felt like I was doing the right thing, and the same with Irish Blood and other things.

"So, I feel like Ireland has welcomed its arms and any second thoughts or whatever are far in the past now, and I'm just looking forward, really."

JOE also spoke to Jason O'Mara on the red carpet for a screening of These Sacred Vows in the IFI this week.

There, he said that he will be taking tips from These Sacred Vows' depiction of a nightmare wedding about what not to do when he and Walker tie the knot.

Jason O'Mara

"Basically, These Sacred Vows is sort of how not to do a wedding, how not to do an island wedding specifically," he told JOE.

"Just about every mistake is made by the characters. What can go wrong will go wrong.

"So, I'll definitely be taking some tips as to what not to do for my own wedding, which might well be an island wedding, but not Tenerife."

Created by John Butler (Handsome Devil), These Sacred Vows begins with a man being discovered dead and floating in a swimming pool (à la Sunset Boulevard) in Tenerife.

We quickly learn that the body belongs to Fr Vincent (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Love/Hate), a quiet and shy Munster priest.

We then flash backwards in time to when the priest first arrived on the Spanish island to officiate the wedding of the daughter of his old friend, Jerry (Jason O'Mara).

Landing on the Spanish island, Fr Vincent is shocked to learn that he will be sharing his accommodation with a large group of rowdy and hedonistic youngsters, who also aren't very pleased about being stuck with a man of the cloth.

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in These Sacred Vows

From this point on, tensions quickly brew amongst the wedding party.

Speaking about the inspiration for his "southside dad" character, Jason O'Mara joked at the roundtable:

"I went to school with a lot of them. He's a bit of a South Dublin arse, so, you know, typecast."

Jumping to his defence, O'Mara's co-star and old friend from college, Mitchell, exclaimed: "That is not true. I can say that's not true."

O'Mara added: "Jerry's an interesting guy because he's got a lot of bluster and he also has sort of a voracious appetite.

"I put on 10 kilos to play him, which was something I hadn't done. Mind you, the breakfasts at the hotel [we stayed at in Tenerife] were so good that I just laid into them every morning.

"That was kind of all the work I had to do for that, so that wasn't the hardest part of it.

"Jerry, like a lot of the characters in this, has a secret. I think he represents a lot of what [creator John Butler] is trying to get into in the series, which is that there are many people... who are reaching for something, grasping for something that they think will make them happy, something that they think they want.

"But actually, they're doing that to deny the truth of who they really are.

"That's kind of Jerry. That's as close as I can get to describing his character."

These Sacred Vows starts Sunday 1 February at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. The first two episodes will drop on RTÉ Player on Sunday night.