BACK PAGE:Celestine McCoy worked as a nurse until she married and moved to Kinsale. The mother of four recently turned her lifelong hobby of making hats into a business, writes OLIVIA KELLEHER
CELESTINE McCOY is the second of nine children and, being of a nurturing disposition, nursing was always a likely career choice. Her friendly nature coupled with having a psychiatrist for a father meant McCoy almost “fell into nursing”.
She started nursing in the late 1980s at hospitals in Meath and then in Tallaght in Dublin. She enjoyed the frenetic pace of A&E units but says nursing was not without its difficult days.
Fashion always fascinated McCoy and she had an eye for one-off accessories that would transform an outfit. Her mother Maura was her fashion inspiration, with the young Celestine growing up in an environment where style was something that was always to the fore.
“My mother has always been fashion conscious. She wore nice hats and feathers. She is a fantastic flower arranger so that creative thing was always there. My mother always has the correct shoes with an outfit, even now. She just has a sense of style. I was inspired by her.”
In her spare time, McCoy took a course in millinery at the Grafton Academy in Dublin. There she learned every aspect of hat making, from straw plaiting to felt blocking, dyeing feathers, ribbon work and the use of different materials.
McCoy made hats for her fellow nurses who pleaded with her to make them something special before weddings, the Galway Races and other social events. However, millinery always remained just a hobby
In the late 1990s, McCoy met her partner Jim at a rugby match. The pair married in 2001 and moved to Kinsale in Co Cork. They had four children in a short space of time: their eldest child James is six and Holly, the youngest in the family, is a year old.
McCoy says the life of an A&E nurse was not compatible with having four children and she began to consider an alternative career. “I worked in a GP’s practice for a while because I knew that the A&E wasn’t going to work for me. If you are at A&E and there is a sick patient at eight o’clock at night you can’t just walk away from them. The GP’s practice was closer to home and it did not have the intensity of A&E. So that worked for a while.”
McCoy still nurtured the dream of making hats for a living. The final push came two years ago when she was asked to design 10 hats for a school fashion show in Kinsale.
She made 10 “very different-looking hats” for the catwalk and the feedback on the night was extremely positive.
McCoy says the excitement surrounding the hats gave her the impetus to set up her own business, Hattitude, which operates from a studio at the Glen in Kinsale.
McCoy moved into a studio in recent weeks after tempting fate for two years working from home. “I have had to lock the door where I make my hats. It is just a children’s paradise in there with all the pink and the rainbow-coloured feathers. In my free time I make hats with my children and Katie and Ella love all of that. With the new studio I get to work nearby and I am always there if the kids need me, which is great.”
McCoy says it is particularly enriching to be able to have her own creative time amid all the demands of child rearing.
Even in the midst of the recession the phone has not stopped ringing at her home in Kinsale as customers seek an escape from the gloom of uncertain economic times.
McCoy particularly enjoys making hats for people who say they “don’t have the right heads for hats” or those who are recovering from surgery and in need of a boost to their self-esteem.
“The nursing background helps when someone comes in and they might be after surgery and so on. I would have met people who would be telling you their stories and it is wonderful to be able to give them a boost with a hat they love.
“I think there is a hat out there for everyone. Everybody can get a hat. It doesn’t have to be that expensive once it makes them feel special.”
McCoy takes into account the customer’s age, colouring and height so she can design the right piece. What is more important, though, is to figure out what makes that person tick. She says there is immense job satisfaction in brightening someone’s day.
With the help of her “one of a kind” childminder Margaret, McCoy works three full days a week. She misses the camaraderie of working in nursing but she says the move into a career that is just “plain fun” makes up for the loss of the “buzz of the A&E”.
No day is the same for McCoy – one day she is making zany hats for colourful characters and the next she is dealing with a mother of the bride who feels she does not have the confidence to wear a hat. Her life revolves around her children and the professional world of tulle, ribbon, silks, satins, needles, thread and feathers.
McCoy is currently working on a collection of one-off vintage pieces for a fashion show at the Cork Airport Hotel. She derives immense pleasure from designing such pieces and says the Celestine of 10 years ago would be amazed at how her life has turned out.
“There was always something inside me and it is brilliant just to bring out that creative side. I meet fantastic people and my husband Jim has always been very good with pushing the business side of things for me. I just give it 100 per cent.
“Deep down, this is something I always wanted to do. It is unbelievable to be able to work at something you really, really enjoy. I love making a piece and then walking away from it for around 24 hours and then coming back to have another go at it.
“I would never have believed this is how my life would have turned out. It is a massive change but I am really excited about it.”