This week Miriam meets former Miss Ireland and author Amanda Brunker with her sister, award winning sculptor Linda Brunker.
Together, they talk about their childhood in the Dublin suburb of Finglas. “We were known as the Protestant Brunkers” explained Amanda, but Linda added that the experience of growing up different from their neighbours allowed them to be at ease with being different as they went through life. As friends of their older brother, Edward, Bono, Guggi and Gavin Friday were regular visitors to their home.
The sisters tell Miriam about how the death of their late brother, Edward, who died prematurely in his 30s, changed the course of their lives and the lives of their parents.
Neither sister performed well in academic work. Amanda explained to Miriam that although she was a straight A student in First Year of secondary school, she never completed her education. At 16, she won Miss Ireland and left school. However she turned her hand to writing and this month the third book in her champagne series Champagne Secrets is published. But her husband doesn’t read her books “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Linda was a dreamy child who ended up doing art because it was all she was good at. She has since gone on to become a successful sculptor with her work on display outside the Department of Education, The Wishing Hand, as well as in other locations around the country. Linda credits her parents in giving them great self belief and believes that both sisters have educated themselves to achieve their goals.
Both sisters were married in recent years. Linda married her second husband in Los Angeles. Amanda eloped with her fiancé and the father of her two boys. They went to New York where their wedding was photographed by VIP magazine and Bono walked Amanda up the aisle. However Amanda regrets not telling her mother about her plans. “That was probably not one of my most clever moves and I am still apologising for it.” Linda, who was with their mother when she heard that Amanda had just been married said “Honestly, she was gutted.”
Both sisters have had children, Amanda has two sons aged four and three, while Linda has a nine month old daughter. Linda reflected “It is the hardest job in the world and probably the most unappreciated.” Amanda explained “Motherhood changed me and I became very focussed on things I wanted to achieve. The last four years have been a whirlwind and I ask myself why didn’t I do the hard work before I had children?”
Linda explained to Miriam “We are very different, we don’t look like who we are and we are both not what we seem”