A New Life: From Rome to Wicklow, from showbiz to food, life is never dull. Sylvia Thompson reports
Derry-born Paul Pritchard spent over 10 years working for Italian television shows and as a choreographer and dance teacher before moving to Wicklow town to establish an artisan food company with his partner.
He is one of that subset of Irish people who are in essence more European than Irish. He is one of that group of Irish people who have lived on the European mainland for a number of years, becoming immersed in the language and culture of their adopted home and only returning to Ireland when family circumstances or other close relationships force a decision that otherwise might never have been made.
Having grown up and gone to school in Derry city, he left to study in the renowned London school of music and dance, Italia Conti, in the mid-1970s.
Therein followed a culturally rich and flamboyant number of years working with travelling musicals, touring pantomimes, pop groups and television shows which found him moving between London, Berlin and various parts of Italy.
It was not until the death of his mother in 1994 that he returned to Derry and later moved to Dublin and then Wicklow from where he now runs an artisan food company with his partner in life and business, Michael Martin.
A fluent Italian speaker, he still carries with him that effervescence which is characteristic of many Italians.
He speaks enthusiastically about his years living first in Rome and then later in Milan while working on numerous contracts for the Italian state television company, RAI, some for Silvio Berlusconi's independent TV channel, Canale 5, and later as a choreographer and dance teacher to students, training to work at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan.
"I worked with people such as the television presenter, Rafaella Carra, choreographed a rock opera for the Teatro Sistina, the national theatre in Rome, and helped organise a birthday party for Pele at the San Ciro stadium in Milan. I loved being involved in big events like that," he explains.
Although back living in Ireland for almost 10 years, he still finds the cold weather and the lack of a siesta in the middle of the day hard to deal with.
"When I first moved back here, I used to get grumpy between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. because I missed my siesta.
"In Rome, everyone would take a break between 12.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. and then work until 8 p.m. and have dinner at about 9.30 p.m."
However, these temporal issues aside, he is pleased to have found a new focus to his life and doesn't regret leaving the razzmatazz world of television and stage shows behind.
"When you're working for a television company, you always have to look your best. It's quite a superficial world in which you build up great trust in a small number of people.
"The food business is more relaxed, you can sit around a table with a glass of wine to discuss things," he says.
"The difficulty for small businesses like ours is that you have to do everything yourself and you work long hours."
How Michael Martin and Paul Pritchard have become successful artisan food producers is the story of two people following their instincts about an idea and literally learning how to develop that idea into a business as they went along.
"We started off selling empty decorated bottles [the bound twine which is now the recognisable brand of Twine Inc], decorated pictures and mirrors in interior and design shops from Derry to Dublin. Then we realised we should fill the bottles with something so we considered bath salts or food.
"Then we thought of flavouring different olive oils," explains Martin, whose training as a chef came into play.
Moving from Ranelagh, Dublin to Co Wicklow, the duo got a unit in the Wicklow Enterprise Centre and set about developing their cold pressed and flavoured oils.
In 2001, they took over the Organic Herb Company and now supply a number of shops and delicatessens (including Avoca Handweavers stores) with their ranges of oils and organic herb gift boxes.
"It was like a new adventure. It just snowballed and snowballed and we nurtured it as it grew," explains Pritchard.
More recently, the artisan food producers have developed a blend of roasted seeds (pumpkin seeds, linseeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds) which is catching on.
And is it difficult to decide who does what job in the business or have all those years working with creative (and sometimes temperamental) media types helped?
"We tend to fight out ideas on the basis of what it looks like and tastes like. But, when it comes to costing things up, I leave that to Michael.
"But, really the amazing thing about this business is that all along, it seems to have had its own momentum which we simple responded to," says Paul.