| Honorific Prefix: | Dr (hon. caus.) |
| Noelle Campbell-Sharp | |
| Birth Place: | County Wexford |
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Noelle Campbell-Sharp (born 1943 in County Wexford)[2] is an Irish artistic promoter, gallerist and philanthropist, formerly a journalist, editor and publisher of multiple Irish magazine titles. She operates an art gallery in Dublin, has been a member of the Arts Council of Ireland, and has led the Cill Rialaig project in County Kerry, which has hosted more than 5,000 artists[3] since its establishment in 1991.[2]
Campbell-Sharp was born in 1943 in Wexford, and was given away at birth, with IEP£100 to be fostered as a Catholic, and then adopted[4] by the Roche family, growing up in County Wexford.[2] She has described how her mother had run away to Northern Ireland, became pregnant at 20 with an American partner, and later built a career in a medical field in the UK. She researched her birth background, and while her mother died before they could meet, she became acquainted with a half-brother and two half-sisters, and other relatives.[5]
Roche acquired a love of history and military matters from her father, and went on to collect Napoleon memorabilia. She left school at the age of 15, after taking her Intermediate Certificate.[5]
Roche secured an invoice clerk-typist job with a foundry and agricultural machinery company, Pierce's, in Wexford.[4] She moved to Dublin, attended the Brendan Smith Academy of Acting[5] and acted with the Young Dublin Players, and based on that secured a role as a Public Relations Officer for the Gaiety Theatre,[2] with her first client being Peter O'Toole.[6]
After her marriage to British fashion photographer Neil Campbell-Sharp,[7] she began to write text to go with his work, and later to manage his career, and so became involved with fashion journalism. The marriage ended some years later.[1]
Campbell-Sharp began to work with Irish Tatler magazine, buying it out in 1979, using a company established with Kilkenny People editor, John Kerry Keane. She shortened Irish Tatler working title to IT,[6] and edited it until 1988.[8] She also purchased a number of other titles, publishing 11 at one point, including Social and Personal, which she later sold to Michael Smurfit's Smurfit Publishing, and Success.[8] She also published Ryanair's in-flight magazine for some years, and later won a legal action to retain that contract. Additionally her publishing company won a contract to publish a magazine for Ryanair's frequent target of criticism, Aer Rianta.
Campbell-Sharp sold her magazine business to Robert Maxwell, 51% in 1989, and 49% in 1991, to be bought out over five years.[4] His death, and the unravelling of his business, left her without the balance of the sale price, a loss she estimated at £10 million.[6] Her partner at that time, musician Niall McGuinness, brother of U2’s manager Paul McGuinness, died suddenly about a year later, aged 39.[5] [4]
With her main residence in Killiney,[4] she purchased a property in the coastal area of Ballinskelligs in County Kerry in the late 1980s, having it renovated under architect Alfred Cochrane.[2] She was very active on the Dublin social scene, and became friends with Terry Keane.[8] She took a legal action over reporting, against Hugh Leonard and Independent News and Media, being awarded £70,000 and costs of over £100,000 in 1997.[9] She secured a nomination for election to the board of directors of Bank of Ireland in 1992 but failed to be elected. She also managed a rock band, Against the Storm, in 1994–1995.[9]
Having heard of a risk of a road widening project destroying famine village remnants at Cill Rialaig in Ballinskelligs, she organised fund-raising with some local and Dublin-based friends, and a small grant from the Irish National Lottery, purchased the ruins, and commenced what grew into the multi-part Cill Rialaig Project,[2] an Artist Retreat[4] and nearby Arts Centre. She later sold her Killiney house and made Ballinskelligs her main base,[9] and she continued as the driving force of this project,[10] which has hosted over 5,000 artists on residencies as of mid-2019.[3]
Campbell-Sharp launched her first gallery, on St. Stephen's Green, dedicated to work from Cill Rialaig – this was opened by the Tánaiste Dick Spring, with the Ambassador of the US, Jean Kennedy Smith in attendance.[11] This was followed by the Origins Gallery,[4] which began on Harcourt Street, then had to move due to Luas building works, reopening on Fitzwilliam Street Lower, and which is being reworked in 2019. For a time, from 2006 to the early 2010s, Campbell-Sharp also operated the Urban Retreat gallery on Hanover Quay, by Grand Canal Dock. focused on Cill Rialaig's output and artists.[12]
Campbell-Sharp received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in June 2007, conferred by Garret FitzGerald.[13]
Campbell-Sharp was appointed as a member of Ireland's 13-member Arts Council in 2003 by Minister John O'Donoghue.[14]
Campbell-Sharp has one daughter with Neil Campbell-Sharp. Married to avant garde photographer Bernhardt von Spreckelsen, holistic therapist Tara has three children, born within a three-year span.[5] [15]
Campbell-Sharp was an active collector of Napoleon-related memorabilia, and member of the Napoleon Society of Ireland, for decades, but in 2019 announced plans to auction off her collection.[16]