Neven Maguire

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If you happen to know Neven Maguire, and happen to have known him for a long time, then people will always ask you this question: “Is he always like that? You know: smiling, up-for-it, a word for everyone?’

And the answer is: Yes. He is always like that. We did, once, see him annoyed, years and years ago, when he had been wronged. But he shook it off in an instant, and did what he does: he moved onwards, which meant he moved upwards. Neven Maguire is a train: he understands that motion will get you to where you want to be. Don't stop. Don't look back.

Where he wants to be is in the kitchen in the MacNean Restaurant in Blacklion, the little bend-in-the-road in County Cavan where he was born, one of nine children. School was not for him, and he was in the kitchen of the family restaurant aged 12, alongside his Mum. The war in Northern Ireland virtually laid waste to Blacklion, so one imagines that Maguire is familiar with hardship, familiar with having to over-deliver just to stand still. He has a work ethic that would make a Puritan blanch.

His skills soon saw him take every culinary prize going, and his manner soon saw him take television by storm. In the best way, he is ubiquitous: one is always happy to see him cooking, demonstrating, talking, part of the national fabric. Allied to his constant charm is a constant hunger to learn: when he isn't working hard he is off on a busman's holiday, checking out great restaurants throughout the world.

Maguire likes to quote the African proverb, to the effect that, “It takes a village to rear a child”. Blacklion has reared something truly exceptional, and Neven Maguire is repaying Blacklion every day, for the world now comes to Maguire's door, hungry to pay homage to one of the great modern masters. Open-minded and open-hearted, everywhere he looks he sees Heaven. Which is to say that everywhere he looks, he sees Blacklion.

MacNean Restaurant, Blacklion, County Cavan
071 985 3022