New Irish mystery series with Love/Hate star is an absolute must-watch

JOE spoke to the cast of the exciting new series, including Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who discussed similarities between the character in his show and himself.

The Dublin actor got his big break playing the darkly funny yet vicious gangster Nidge in Love/Hate and has since impressed audiences with his incredible versatility in a vast array of projects.

These include the blockbuster movies Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War, the hit Irish TV shows Charlie, Dublin Murders and Say Nothing and the acclaimed indie films Baltimore, Daphne and Rialto.

In These Sacred Vows, however, audiences will get to see a more gentle side to the Irish star.

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

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in These Sacred Vows

We quickly learn that the body belongs to Fr Vincent (Vaughan-Lawlor), 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, Irish Blood).

Landing in Tenerife, 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.

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

These Sacred Vows Review

JOE has seen the first of These Sacred Vows' six episodes. If the rest of the series is as strong as its pilot, it is certain to go down as one of the best Irish shows of recent years.

While comparisons to The White Lotus are inevitable - both share dead bodies and wealthy tourists in gorgeous locations abroad causing mayhem - it's clear within a few minutes of the pilot that this is very much a different beast.

Between Butler's sparkling dialogue, filled with laugh-out-loud Irish expressions and in-jokes (one about Ryanair provoked uproarious laughter at its premiere), and the juxtaposition between Fr Vincent and the diverse group of young people he's sharing a villa with, this is a playful but probing series - one that explores modern-day Ireland from a variety of different lenses.

While it may sound odd that a show set in Spain could wind up feeling like "a state of the Emerald Isle" piece, one of its stars, Justine Mitchell (Hamnet), told journalists ahead of its release: "If you take a fish out of water, you can see the gills more clearly. Maybe the most Irish [thing] you see is the Irish away."

So far, These Sacred Vows balances the macro and the micro. Yes, the opening episode is tackling big themes about identity and how Irish people's relationship with the Catholic Church and faith in general has changed.

But it also functions brilliantly as an hour-long character study and slow-rising pressure-cooker. While Fr. Vincent is at first reserved and soft-spoken, it isn't long before he finds his calm demeanour increasingly tested by wedding demands, as well as a number of very believable micro-aggressions and setbacks.

Vaughan-Lawlor is wonderful, making his priest so utterly sympathetic, despite certain flaws. He's backed by an astounding supporting cast, of which Mitchell, O'Mara, India Mullen (Normal People), Mark O'Halloran (Adam & Paul) and Shane Daniel Byrne (Good Boy) are early standouts.

Each episode of These Sacred Vows will shift perspectives to a different character, so we'll be curious to see if it can the series can sustain itself. But if it can, this could be a new classic.

These Sacred Vows Interviews

Speaking to Vaughan-Lawlor at the red carpet premiere for These Sacred Vows at the IFI, JOE asked him about playing a character so different to his previous roles, such as Nidge in Love/Hate.

In response, he told us:

"I suppose because you're wearing different hats as an actor, some characters are closer to you, some characters are further away.

"I think this character's interior, internal tempo is closer to mine in terms of being a bit reclusive. Maybe that's me, I don't know.

"But I'm fortunate in my career to get to wear lots of different hats and try different parts. This is another kind of challenge for me.

"It's a really elegant part; complicated, nuanced, and that's what you just hope for as an actor."

Those aforementioned youngsters are played by a fantastic cast of up-and-coming actors, which also include Aaron Heffernan (Bring Them Down), Adam John Richardson (The Dry), Aoife Hinds (Saipan), as well as some beloved comedians such as Byrne and Catherine Bohart (LOL: Last One Laughing).

Praising Bohart and Byrne, along with the rest of the cast, Vaughan-Lawlor told JOE:

"They're innate charisma and their innate playfulness as comedians, stand-ups, that is really special to be in a scene with.

"They bring a presence and an immediacy that you've got to sometimes work out if that's not natural to you. So they challenge you in a certain way.

"The younger cast members, they sometimes have different ways of working or different ways of approaching characters that I find fascinating.

"I think if you're open enough to learn from younger actors with their influences, you can learn a lot.

"I love working with younger actors who you can nick stuff from," he said, laughing.

JOE also attended a roundtable with Vaughan-Lawlor's co-stars Jason O'Mara and Justine Mitchell, who play the parents of the bride.

Speaking about the inspiration for his "southside dad" character, 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."

Jason O'Mara

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.