When Siobhan Byrne founded luxury travel agency Adams & Butler in 2004, she didn't anticipate booking quite so many celebrities.

Given the rise of the Irish film industry, she expected one or two, but not the 100-odd bookings Byrne estimates she has personally handled over the past more than 20 years.

Talking at pace, Byrne tells TTG how booking breaks – both domestic and overseas – for megastars all began.

In 2006, Michael Jackson was in Ireland while the Ryder Cup golf tournament was taking place in County Kildare, west of Dublin, where Adams & Butler is based.

It’s important to point out Jackson was not a golf fan, he just happened to be in the country at the same time.

"The Ryder Cup arrived and I got a phone call saying ‘get him out of here’,” Byrne says. “I never normally meet celebrities unless they want to meet us. Michael Jackson wanted to see me.”

Byrne, though, had a problem. “Because the Ryder Cup was in Ireland, a lot of the properties we normally have had already been rented out,” she explains. “But we found an amazing house in the centre of Ireland with a pool and a recording studio.”

Jackson ended up staying in Ireland for four months, Byrne says, with his three children and nanny Grace Rwaramba, who acted as “household manager”.

Facebook friend request 

Byrne recalls one “funny” exchange with Jackson and Rwaramba from their first meeting. “When I arrived, they had assumed I was going to be black because Siobhan is a Latin American name in New York. I’m not black, I’m blonde,” Byrne says.

"They said they normally worked with Latin American companies, and went for the name Siobhan because of that. I found that funny.”

Byrne would often drive Jackson around in her Toyota Avensis – a “typical mother’s car” as she describes it. And she would always remember one crucial thing every time she picked up the man his army of fans call “the king of pop”.

“I knew he didn’t like people looking at him so I made a point of putting my rearview mirror at an angle so he could see that I wasn’t using it to look at him,” she explains.

Byrne admits she was deeply upset when she learned Jackson had died just three years later. The same day his passing was announced to the world, Rwaramba sent Byrne a friend request on Facebook.

“I cried so much when Michael Jackson died," says Byrne, whose agency was shortlisted for Luxury Adventure Travel Designer of the Year at TTG Luxury Travel Awards this year. "I felt he would have been happy to know that he was the reason we set up a successful company."

Byrne reckons booking trips for celebrities accounts for “15% to 20%” of Adams & Butler’s annual business. “I’ve booked around 100 trips [for celebrities] – around five a year on average,” she continues.

Byrne confirms many stars request non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), but happily reveals she has helped Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West design their holidays.  

Credit: Adams & Butler

Her most jaw-dropping stories are the ones where she can’t reveal the names.

“There was one celebrity who did not want to be crying on her sofa on New Year’s Eve and her people [representatives] asked if someone would be able to travel with her,” says Byrne. “I travelled to Seville with her. I usually just enjoy doing something small on New Year’s Eve.

“We had fun together and we enjoyed ourselves. However, I enjoyed the first few days with her more than the last few. There was too much alone time with her.

“I know she enjoyed it because she came back a second time and asked me to do it again, which I did. We went to France that time and went skiing together.”

When I ask the resort the unlikely pair visited, says only – with respect to the NDA – that the duo skied “beside” the French Alps.

'No drama queens'

Byrne says Adam & Butler has around 200 properties on its books across the world, with the vast majority in Ireland and the UK.

Sometimes, though, a celebrity will contact the agency, requesting a certain type of property in a specific area Byrne and her team didn’t have access to.

“Once there were two celebrities who wanted a property on a particular road in a particular village and we didn’t have a property there,” says Byrne, seamlessly picking up the story. “It was a place called Dalkey in Ireland. It was where Matt Damon stayed when he was in Ireland during Covid.

“I literally went to the road and I knocked on every single door. I was chased by dogs and everything. When the person who owned the house found out who it was, she didn’t want to charge. She said ‘I want to tell people about this’.

“The client insisted they would pay but said could still tell people after they left.”

Byrne believes Jackson, despite the controversy that dogged the popstar for most of his life, is the reason why Adams & Butler has been such a hit with the rich and famous. “When other celebrities find out Michael Jackson has booked through you, it sort of gives you a seal of approval.”

Byrne says Kim and Kanye got in touch purely because of her dealings with Jackson. “We’ve been very lucky with the clients that we’ve had,” she insists.

“We’ve never had any drama queens. The only booking which did have a bit of that was Kim and Kayne. It was not a holiday in Ireland for them, more somewhere for them to go before their next port of call.”

Intriguingly, Byrne reveals the value of celebrity bookings is not always as high as her agency’s regular clients. “These bookings are sometimes are not as big as you think,” says Byrne. “They can be £40,000 whereas other clients might spend £200,000.”

Despite not earning as much as many would think from celebrity bookings, Byrne clearly enjoys the experience. She says candidly it gives her a “buzz”.

Working closely with celebrities is an experience she never envisaged having when she set up Adams & Butler 22 years ago.