Since leaving Fair City and the acting game, Aoibhín Garrihy hasn't looked back. She talks to Elle Gordon about creating family memories, her passion for business and how poetry can ease the day’s troubles.
Aoibhín Garrihy and I are laughing at the memories of the covershoot the day before in beautiful Ennis, Co Clare that she calls home. It was a fast-paced morning with the imminent arrival home of her three girls; Hanorah, Líobhan and Isla, acting as a driver for us to get everything done in record time, before they landed, with the joyful chaos that three little girls usually bring.
Aoibhín, in her very calm manner that many will know from following her on Instagram or in her capacity at the helm of her lifestyle brand BEO, which she co-found with her friend Sharon Connellan. She hosts live events as well as offering a range of lifestyle products.
Well used to a media melee, she embraced the madness of the cover shoot and it was in the bag in the blink of an eye. The next day we catch up on Zoom.
"Getting changed in the woods," she reminds me with a laugh. "A few years ago, would I have done that? Ah, I probably would have. That is just how life is now. You become very economical with your time. Now, I wonder what in the name of God I was doing before kids. Life is busy, but it is the time of year as well."
"Getting kids back to school and then into routine and driving them here, there and everywhere. With BEO, we’re in the middle of our autumn series of events and it’s also gifting season, so we are heading into our busiest spell. We opened a pop-up shop a few weeks ago here in Ennis and are set to do a three-month pop-up in Kildare Village in February 2023, so even just to get that open was full on.
"I am starting to take a little breather now that things are up and running, but it is just about making sure things are running smoothly"
Then of course there is her book of poetry, released last month, Every Day is a Fresh Beginning: Meaningful Poems for Life. The book contains work from a wide range of poets, including W.B Yeats, Seamus Heaney and Emily Brontë to name but a few. It even features a poem, written by her dad, Eugene Garrihy, that he wrote for her wedding to hotelier John Burke.
She says, "It’s been busy but it’s all good. I am very lucky. I am healthy and I have great help. The five of us are going to Centre Parcs soon and I am so looking forward to that. It’s just about carving out those little moments of time altogether. And it reminds me of growing up; Mom and Dad were busy people all the time and it was those moments, those holidays, those breaks and quality family time that we remember so I think it’s important that you’re getting that time in, as well as all the other stuff. It is finding the joy in those moments.
"We [Aoibhín and her sisters Ailbhe and Doireann] were brought to those amazing places when we were kind of Celtic Tiger cubs… Disney World and lots of lovely places. But it really was the time we spent in the West, mucking around, climbing up on hay bales, packing picnics and heading off on the bikes, they’re the real happy memories and I suppose now through my girls eyes I get to see those little discoveries again.
"They’re happiest just when we’re all together and doing something so simple. That bloody Instagram audio was haunting me all summer long – the one [from psychologist Jordan Peterson] that says, ‘You have little children for four years’ and so I was like, ‘Oh God, it’s nearly over! So there is that guilt when you’re so busy but then at the same time, I don’t think it does them any harm to see parents who are working hard.
"It was the same with us growing up, Mom and Dad were grafters and I suppose that has probably rubbed off. The work ethic was there because of them, and we saw that nothing comes easy. You have to work for whatever you get. And so, for that reason, I don’t think it’s bad for the girls to see their Mum and Dad up to high doh every now and again."
A family of hard workers, so, but are you’re your daughters very different from each other?
"It is just mad how they can be all so different. John and Hanorah are two peas in a pod. She is him. Líobhan is totally different, I call her my little hippie. She doesn’t get stressed, and then Isla, she is hilarious I think she is the Doireann of the gang. Every time I send a picture to the family Whatsapp, Doireann says, ‘There is my spirit child.’ She is a totally jolly soul, you can see there is devilment there. I think we’ll have trouble with her; she’s not walking yet but as soon as she is off, I can just imagine. Already she is driving the other two mad. She just bulldozes in and wrecks the place. It was similar when we were small. I just wanted Doireann to exit stage left but she just always wanted to be in the thick of it. That is just younger and older siblings."
Could you ever have imagined how much love you would have for your girls?
"If you had asked me ten years ago, I certainly didn’t see this. I wasn’t a particularly maternal person at the time, whereas Ailbhe is. But when your own arrive it is just a new level of love that I could have never anticipated, to be completely and utterly bowled over by the love I have for my children. It’s something you only really appreciate when you have it.
"It’s sort of how I am with the business too. We met with the local enterprise office and they’re like, ‘what is your five-year plan? Where are your business projections?’ and it’s like, ‘Eh… in our WhatsApp group?’ As we think of things it just unfolds. Ten years ago, I had no idea I’d be in Ennis and married to a Clare man, but I am not the type of person to say I am ‘x’ so I can’t be ‘y’. I think you can be both and everything else in between."
Aoibhín seems so happy with her business and family life, but does she ever miss acting?
"There are no regrets. But do I miss it? Yeah, I do. But I think it was the industry itself that probably pushed me away ultimately. It just didn’t sit well with me. I think you need to be a certain type of person and for me there was an itch there that I certainly wanted to scratch in terms of business, and I get to do that with BEO and I am in control of what I produce and all of that.
"The schmoozing aspect of it… I just hated that. I certainly miss the doing of it but the other stuff not so much and I absolutely love what I am doing now. I am so content, and you can’t buy that. It’s a feeling and it’s a gear shift, when I am on the road home to Clare, I feel it. I still love Dublin and I still work in Dublin quite regularly but in terms of the other pace of life, here is home now."
Speaking of gear shifts, Aoibhín started an Instagram series during lockdown called ‘Poetry for Pause’, an opportunity for people to take a beat in their day, listen to a poem and slow down.
"I think it was the right thing at the right time and people found the power of words to be very healing. That was how the idea of the book came about. It was a number one bestseller and that has just been amazing. I just wanted to break down that barrier that some might have about poetry and find comfort in the words."
Finally, how has husband John’s hotel business weathered the lockdowns?
"The hotel is flying, and John is amazing. He is such a great Dad to the girls, and they are absolutely mad about him. I could do backflips in the door and I wouldn’t get the same reaction from them as he does. They adore him. I suppose we are all like that about our dads."
Every Day is a Fresh Beginning: Meaningful Poems for Life is published by Bonnier Books. For more from BEO see beowellness.ie
