Pierce Brosnan played James Bond four times. But when a reporter asked him how he still has a full head of hair at 72, he gave the most Irish answer possible. It was the potatoes, he said. Or the butter. Or the Guinness.
Try the Guinness Timer ⏱️
A perfect pour takes 119.5 seconds — the rest, two minutes, gives the stout time to settle. Time your own pint and see if you wait long enough.
What Pierce Brosnan said
It happened on 14 August 2025, on the red carpet at the New York premiere of his Netflix film The Thursday Murder Club. Page Six asked the Co Louth-born actor about his hair. “It’s all in the hair, the old Celtic hair,” he said, and added that his father, Tom, “had good hair” too.
Then came the joke. Maybe, he said, it was down to “potatoes, butter”, or “the Guinness”. Asked how he was ageing so well, he laughed and said, “I’m doing my best!” (People and Entertainment Now both reported his words.)
He was joking, of course, and we are not about to tell you that a pint grows hair. But every Irish person who read that quote smiled. He had named, without thinking, three things you would find on almost any Irish grandparent’s table. (We covered the moment itself in Pierce Brosnan Credits Guinness and Irish Genes for His Iconic Hair; this piece goes deeper on the three foods he named, and ends with the recipe for champ.)
Potatoes: the plate under everything
☘️ Join 64,000+ Ireland Lovers
Every weekday morning, get Ireland’s hidden gems, local secrets, and travel inspiration — the kind you won’t find in any guidebook.
Subscribe free — enter your email:
Already subscribed? Download your free Ireland guide (PDF)
📲 Know someone who’d love this? Share on WhatsApp →
Free forever · Unsubscribe anytime
Ask anyone who grew up in Ireland what was on the dinner plate, and potatoes come first. Boiled in their skins and peeled at the table, mashed with cabbage into colcannon, or beaten with scallions and milk into champ. A dinner without them didn’t feel like dinner.
Champ is the one that puts Brosnan’s first two foods together. It is mashed potato with scallions (spring onions), loosened with hot milk, then piled in a bowl with a hollow in the middle for a knob of butter to melt into. You eat it from the outside in, dipping each forkful into the butter. The recipe is at the end of this article.
Butter: the Irish butter that was nearly called Leprechaun
Irish butter is famous well beyond Ireland now, and its best-known brand has a story of its own. In 1962 the Irish Dairy Board needed a name for the butter it was about to sell abroad. Sixty ideas came in. They were cut down to six: Buttercup, Shannon Gold, Leprechaun, Tub-o-Gold, Golden Farm and Kerrygold. Kerrygold won, and the butter went on sale first in the UK that year (Kerrygold’s own history).
We still think about how close the world came to buttering its toast with Leprechaun. If you want more on why Irish butter tastes the way it does, read why we love Kerrygold butter so much.
Guinness: the third member of the family
Brosnan called it “the Guinness”, the way you’d mention a relative. In Irish kitchens Guinness ends up in the pot as often as the glass: in a slow beef and Guinness stew, in brown bread, in the Christmas cake. Serve the stew with a bowl of champ and you have all three of his foods at one table.
For more on the actor and his home country, read our older piece, Pierce Brosnan: a proud Irishman and his bond with Ireland.
Cook the real Irish classics at home ☘️
Get our free guide, 10 Real Irish Recipes: the dishes Irish families actually cook, written the way Granny made them.
How to make champ (serves 4)
Use a floury potato such as Rooster or Maris Piper. Waxy potatoes turn gluey when you mash them.
Ingredients
- 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and cut into even chunks
- 1 bunch of scallions (spring onions), about 8, thinly sliced
- 250 ml whole milk
- 100 g salted Irish butter, plus a knob for each bowl
- Salt and white or black pepper
Method
- Put the potatoes in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance.
- While they cook, put the scallions and milk in a small pan. Bring just to a simmer, cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then take off the heat and leave the scallions to steep.
- Drain the potatoes well and return them to the empty pot over a low heat for a minute to steam off the last of the water.
- Mash the potatoes with the 100 g of butter until there are no lumps.
- Pour in the hot milk and scallions a little at a time, beating with a wooden spoon, until the mash is soft and fluffy. You may not need all the milk.
- Season with salt and pepper and taste.
- Pile into warm bowls, press a hollow into the top of each with the back of a spoon, and drop in a knob of butter to melt into a little pool.
Eat it on its own, the old way, or next to sausages, bacon or a bowl of stew. Leftover champ makes good potato cakes the next day: shape into rounds and fry in butter until golden on both sides.
So was Brosnan right? We can’t promise champ will do anything for your hair. But it is one of the best things you can do with a bag of potatoes and a block of Irish butter. What did your family eat when you wanted comfort food?
Sources
- Brosnan’s quotes, New York premiere of The Thursday Murder Club, 14 August 2025, told to Page Six: People (via AOL), Entertainment Now, NationalWorld
- The Kerrygold name shortlist and 1962 UK launch: Kerrygold, “A Kerrygold history”
Checked November 2026.
Tours & experiences you might love
Powered by Viator. Some links are affiliate links — we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Secure Your Dream Irish Experience Before It’s Gone!
Planning a trip to Ireland? Don’t let sold-out tours or packed attractions spoil your journey. Iconic experiences like visiting the Cliffs of Moher, exploring the Rock of Cashel, or enjoying a guided walk through Ireland’s ancient past often sell out quickly—especially during peak travel seasons.
Booking in advance guarantees your place and ensures you can fully immerse yourself in the rich culture and breathtaking scenery without stress or disappointment. You’ll also free up time to explore Ireland’s hidden gems and savour those authentic moments that make your trip truly special.
Make the most of your journey—start planning today and secure those must-do experiences before they’re gone!