Dominic Cooper has said that filming in Donegal was both “healing and beautiful” for the Hollywood star.
Cooper made the comments on the Late Late Show last night, whilst speaking with host Patrick Kielty.
He appeared with co-star Sarah Bolger as his latest movie – The Lightkeeper – releases in cinemas this weekend.
The movie was filmed largely in Donegal, a place that Cooper says he completely fell in love with – especially as shooting for The Lightkeeper came just after the passing of his mother.
“I fell completely in love with it, actually. It was a very healing, beautiful place to be and the people there were wonderful as well,” he said.
“We lived in this community, in fact I had just lost my mother very, very close to filming. Her maiden name was Herron, and the family that I met there were all the Herrons.”
“We just used to sit together and sing, and play instruments, and talk, it was sort of almost the perfect remedy or cure, it was just exactly what was needed.”
Dominic says that Ireland, and Donegal in particular, is unlike anywhere he has ever been.
“(There’s) this expanse of land, it’s beautiful, the ocean… and I’ve always felt this in Ireland the soil, it’s just so rich, something’s going on, it’s fizzing with something.”
“It’s so much energy, it’s unlike anywhere I’ve ever been, you feel something’s inhabiting you sometimes. It feels like people who have gone, are there, because it’s very spiritual.”
“That particular part of Ireland I had never been to, and it was just healing and beautiful.”
First developed under the title Cry From the Sea, The Lightkeeper is set in Ireland in 1924 and follows Dominic Cooper’s character, Seamus Óg McGrinna.
A lighthouse keeper whose elaborate rituals keep him at a distance from the outside world as he awaits the fabled Each Uisce (Water-Horse) to take him.
His carefully constructed prison is blown open by three people who change the course of his life: an American war widow whose quest for closure ignites something in him; a housekeeper who fiercely protects him; and the hard-line priest who starts a battle of wills.
“Healing and beautiful” – Dominic Cooper on falling in love with Donegal! was last modified: February 21st, 2026 by Staff Writer