International Woman’s Day

On March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day. The event that is now United Nations recognised celebration – a day designed to shine a spotlight on women’s achievements and bolster campaigns for gender equality.

Helen O’Dwyer – Deputy CEO

As a recently graduated student from UCC, armed with a degree in English, a post grad in Irish  Heritage & Tourism Management, and a passion for beautiful things, I  joined Meadows & Byrne in its very early days, in 1993. We started as a small team with one store in Cork city, where we all did everything! Thankfully we were not stuck on adhering to the rigidity of a job spec, and so talents began to emerge, and creativity began to shine.

In those early months and years, I thrived on the privilege of covering a lot of ground with the business. Having spent time working as a retail assistant, I progressed to store management, area management, and then started on the serious business of buying for Meadows & Byrne. I loved the excitement of constantly exploring the creative, balancing it with the commercial, travelling the world, meeting and working with fantastic people, and ultimately being part of a growing Irish business.

In 2001, Meadows & Byrne merged back into the Blarney Group, and Blarney Woollen Mills with all its glorious history, became part of my portfolio. A whole new set of learnings began right there and then – understanding the America tourism  market, surviving the financial fallouts from disasters like 9/11 and the ash cloud phenomenon and working through the recession years that followed towards the end of the 2000’s. Even in  recent covid times, learnings continued with pivoting the Blarney business model subtly, making the offer and experience more attractive to our home market here in Ireland.

Each decade brings fresh opportunities and challenges, new movements and initiatives . Our journey truly continues, and as Deputy CEO today, still brimming with energy,  passion and a desire to deliver on growth and success, it’s my great honor to help navigate and steer the business into the new future that lies ahead of us all.

Which women inspire you the most? Women who are positive, have vision, women who can react swiftly  to challenges, who can shine the light on another’s talent, who are unafraid to make decisions, women who are kind, women who are brave enough to change their own pathway if it’s not going their way. Obviously, Freda Hayes is a woman I greatly admire for all these reasons, but also I admire women like Vicky Phelan (may she be happy where she is), Catherine Corless, Norah Casey, lots of my personal friends who have each battled difficulty and adversity, yet managed to climb out the other side and all whilst raising families and holding down jobs, and my mother. Every one of these women have stories of courage, resilience and an unquenchable want in them, not to accept the status quo when all was not what it should have been.

How do you influence your colleagues around you and the wider business?  I don’t deliberately wake up in the morning and decide how I am going to influence my colleagues. I am unapologetically passionate about my job, and I think like-minded people feed off this. I am lucky enough to have plenty of energy in the pot and generally be of a positive disposition – again, people feed off this! My colleagues also know that everything I do at work is always with the best interests of the business in mind. I live by this value and lead by this value.

If you could pick one Meadows & Byrne product to give to a woman who inspires you what would it be? Impossible to answer as there are too many wonderful items to choose from! But if I could give her two items, I would give her our solid brass Austin Candleabra (you can never have enough candles at the dinner table), and our Elongated Paddle Mango Wood Server, which makes the an ordinary tapas meal ,extraordinary!

Suzanne Shine – Store Manager

I started my working life while a student, for the O’Connell brothers in their TV and Video store in Blarney, literally a few doors up from my home!  An early and very valuable induction to a customer facing role, it armed me with skills that I brought to all my future roles.

My first full time job was with Mothercare Ireland, which gave me my start in retail, great experience, education and values. Whilst managing the Stephens Green, Dublin store I got a call from the Spanish interiors company, KA International, who were planning a new store in Cork so I happily moved back home to run their branch in the city.  Was there a few years when I was thrilled to hear that M&B were opening a new store in my home town of Blarney village. 

I am with M&B 20 years this year. During that time, I  have been lucky to have spent time in a few areas of the business, buying, web shop support, social media content, photoshoots, as it’s the head office base, anything can come my way! I am currently running the M&B store in the building of the original Blarney Woollen Mills.  Which incidentally is where my grandparents and uncles worked and where my parents met when it housed the factory side of Blarney Woollen Mills.

 

Which women inspire you the most? In my personal life, my late mother Madge, who raised her own family and did so much for us while also looking after other kids and made them part of our family.  She got all her 3 children their first start in their working lives and when she fell ill, fought hard to stay with us for a long as she could as she could.  In my professional life, I would say the women who created M&B, Freda and Helen, for their bravery in starting a new company that’s still here 30 years later.  My colleagues, in this building and in the stores around the country, for their support and friendship over the years, especially the last few that have be so challenging, we have been thru a lot and have supported each other thru it. 

How do you influence your colleagues around you and the wider business?  Retail work requires a vast array of skills.  You must be a multi tasker and be able to change direction at the drop of a hat, so, you must love it and have a passion for what you do to keep the up the pace required.  I believe in and understand the M&B brand.  Being based in our Head office branch, at the very heart of the business, I work closely with the various sections of the business, which has given me a unique insight of the business so I take personal responsibility for everything that we put out there to our customers and that attitude does ripple out to those around me.

If you could pick one Meadows & Byrne product to give to a woman who inspires you what would it be?  I would choose the Eamses style Chair & Ottoman.  It makes a great reading, TV watching, peaceful, creative thinking place to sit and relax.