MOTHERS' DAY:Four hard-working mothers, four successful offspring. Unicef marked Mothers' Day yesterday with its annual fundraising lunch in support of its Safe Motherhood programmes across the world. Arnotts sponsored the fashion show and here are four of their guests with their children, writes PATSEY MURPHY.Portraits by ALAN BETSON
PRUE and ANDREW RUDD
The Rudds of Moneygall are looking forward to president Barack Obama’s visit to his ancestral home in Co Offaly, and are even hoping that he will stop for a full Irish in their listed house, Busherstown House, and feast upon Prue Simon’s much heralded pork and bacon artisan products.
Prue Rudd is the mother of nine children and here she is photographed with Andrew – number six in the line-up – who has inherited his parents’ work ethic and love of artisan foods.
He has his own dynamic catering business, works all over the country at public and private events large and small, and also gives cookery classes and demonstrations.
You can catch him at Arnotts SOS (Style on Saturday) events and here’s a novel notion for Mother’s Day – tomorrow you can take your mama to the Sugar Club in Dublin for an evening of cabaret by Kristin Kapelli and Patrick Fagan, and enjoy a three-course dinner and quirky cookery demonstrations supplied by Andrew from 5.30-11.30pm.
Tickets (€55) will be sold on the door. See andrewrudd.ie or phone 085-7136784.
CIARA and MARY O’CALLAGHAN
Ciara O'Callaghan, it must be said, is ever so much nicer in person than Yvonne Doyle, the obnoxious, trouble-making character she plays in Fair Cityon RTÉ television. She is the oldest and boldest of Mary O'Callaghan's three children, and was affectionately known as Ructions when she was growing up. It is her mother, she says, who gave her the courage to go into acting and embrace the passion and persistence it requires.
“Mam was always way ahead of her time,” she says of the president of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers and lecturer at Cathal Brugha Street, where she is developing a Master’s programme in wine studies. She developed home cookery classes long before the current vogue for them, set up a restaurant in Malahide Castle, and became one of the few women wine consultants in the country.
Mary O’Callaghan is also a master of memorable family gatherings, such as organising a reunion of 75 cousins for her mother’s 75th birthday in Quilty, Co Clare, taking Ciara off to see the recent Grace Kelly exhibition at the VA in London with lunch at the River Café, and this year taking the gang for a sojourn in a Tuscany vineyard. Such trips, and many shared meals, continue to strengthen the family ties.
THERESA and HEIDI HIGGINS
Heidi Higgins was in her sixth year in school when she was a finalist in a design competition sponsored by the RTÉ programme Beyond the Hall Door. Studies at the National College of Art Design followed, as well as three years of invaluable experience working with Louise Kennedy, and she now has her own fashion label, which is sold in Arnotts and a select number of boutiques around the country, as well as a shop with her own name above the door in Portlaoise.
She has her mother Theresa to thank, she says, for supporting her fledgling business. She is working from home and thus has instant help at her fingertips to develop what she hope will be a well-priced versatile range of clothes that can be adapted for special occasion as well as professional, everyday wear.
PATRICIA and MARIETTA DORAN
Marietta Doran, a stylist and fashion presenter for RTÉ and Channel 4 television, who specialises in racing events, inherits her style, she says, from her mother. “She is my rock.”
The fifth in a family of seven children, she lives on the family farm in Borris, Co Carlow, with her young daughter Mia, and can be found "pulling out a lamb" one minute and angling a jaunty hat on a race-goer the next. You'll see her reporting on the style at Punchestown soon, and at Chester as well, although her friends comment that it's really on Ear to the Groundthat she should be appearing.
Patricia Doran, well known in Borris for her baking and Christmas puddings, as well as the Country Kitchen restaurant she pioneered in Bunclody, loves a bit of glamour, says her daughter. “And she has a natural instinct for getting the balance right in life.”
