Actress Emily creates waves in Bantry Bay

BY EMMA CONNOLLY 

INTERNATIONAL model and Hollywood actress Emily Ratajkowski is every bit as nice as she looks. 

That’s according to Catriona O’Mahony, the  community cancer support co-ordinator at  Cork ARC Cancer Support House in Bantry, who shared a cup of tea with the celebrity last week. 

The star of Gone Girl, who is about to appear in the new Hollywood thriller Welcome Home, has called Bantry, where her parents Kathy and John live for part of the year, her ‘spiritual home’.

While here last week she accepted Cork Arc’s invite to visit and enjoyed a 30-minute tour of the facility which provides vital and free support services for cancer survivors, their family members, carers and friends throughout the area.

Catriona, who was also accompanied by fundraising volunteer Claire Spillane, described Emily as a ‘lovely, down to earth person’ who was really impressed by their services which opened in 2015.

The glamorous star wore a pair of on-trend pumps, baggy pants, bomber jacket and belly-tied shirt for the occasion, despite later slamming Aer Lingus on social media for losing her luggage. 

Bantry Bay Boat Hire also enjoyed taking the actress, (whose Welcome Home co-star is Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul), and her parents, on an hour-long trip around Bantry Bay and Whiddy Island. 

Another Aaron – this time Aaron O’Sullivan – who set up the Bantry boat business last June, said it was Emily’s first time driving a boat. 

His girlfriend Ellen O’Donnell is friends with Emily and her parents, which is how the trip came about. 

‘She even got to park it! She hangs out in some of the world’s most exotic locations but she found the experience breathtaking,’ said Aaron, who teaches in the city’s Mount Mercy secondary school. 

Emily was also spotted in dark shades, at the recent Taste of West Cork Festival’s Street Feast in Skibbereen.