Women with inspiration and motivation
INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is tomorrow, to mark the event we asked five successful Irish women to name their leading ladies — those who have most inspired them and who have become their role models.
“Increasingly, in the last few years, I am more inspired by women who have done extraordinary things in adversity.
“Joanne O’Riordan, who has tetra-amelia syndrome and who has recently brought out No Limbs, No Limits, is an amazing young woman. She continues to inspire because she is just not afraid. She has taken on the Taoiseach, addressed the UN, and advised MIT on technology.
“Majella O’Donnell is hugely inspirational. I’ve stayed in touch with her since Irish Tatler gave her a special achievement award at the
Irish Woman of the Year awards. I’m doing a breakfast date with her on International Women’s Day. In recent weeks, she has had a double mastectomy. Daniel O’Donnell was always the one you knew and Majella was the woman by his side. And suddenly she’s on The Late Late Show doing something extremely brave, having her hair shaved off and raising funds and phenomenal awareness of breast cancer. She’s a very dignified woman, very wise, very contemplative.
“The young mum and author, Emma Hannigan, inspires me, too. She was diagnosed with cancer for the ninth time in November. She has the BRCA gene and when she was first diagnosed six years ago she had a double mastectomy and hysterectomy. She’s such a strong psychic spirit. She only started writing when she was first diagnosed with cancer. She has amazing strength.
“Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been my heroine forever and I just recently got an opportunity to interview her. She’s an astrophysicist, born in Armagh, and the foremost female scientist of her time. She discovered pulsars [rapidly rotating neutron stars that release regular bursts of radiowaves]. I call her the woman who discovered stars. She made this discovery through painstaking work. She has broken ground that nobody knew women trod on.”
“From a national point of view, I’m inspired by Miriam O’Callaghan who seems to be able to manage her work/ life balance so well. I’m impressed by her work ethic.
“On an international level, I find Natalie Massenet inspirational. She’s founder of the clothes and beauty website Net-A-Porter. She took a huge risk, selling high-end clothes during a recession and she created a sister company, selling discounted pre-season lines. She has been very revolutionary in the dot.com fashion industry. She was able to innovate to suit customers’ needs. Her customer service and presentation are all done to perfection.
“I’m also inspired by Sheryl Sandberg [Facebook’s chief operating officer] for her honesty. I read her book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, and I was able to resonate very much with her. I believe strongly in her message ‘don’t stand back’. We all hold ourselves back because of the lack of confidence that society upholds.”
“My mother, Helen Walsh, is an inspiration to me. She’s very strong and caring and has always been supportive of any choice I made. She’s there on the good days and on the not so good. If I’m going out to ride something that I think is going to win — like Sea Bass for example — she’s the last person to say ‘best of luck and enjoy it’. She has full faith in me and is very calming as well.
“I’m always inspired by any sportswoman, who’s successful in her sport and making her own path. I love a strong, hard-working, opinionated, ladylike woman.”
“There’s a Cork woman who lives just up the road from me and she has been one of the most inspirational people for me — Kay O’Flynn, owner of Rathsallagh. She moved up here years ago and turned the 500-acre farm into a country house hotel that has won every award.
“She’s never in bad form. She’s a magnificently positive woman who has a smile for every day of the week. She must be over 60 but she looks 35, I think because she’s such a happy human being and fabulous to be around.
“I’m also inspired by Paula Fitzsimons, who runs Going for Growth — basically, she searches Ireland for ladies who want to grow their business. Once she has found all these ‘junior’ entrepreneurs, she calls very successful female entrepreneurs and gathers them all for a monthly round-table forum. She has had humungous success helping budding entrepreneurs by getting successful businesswomen to impart their wisdom and experience.
“I’m inspired, too, by Darina Allen. She works so hard and is running one of the most successful cookery schools in the world. She hasn’t a stroke of an ego — she’s just passionate about food.
“I also find inspirational the lady who’s the brains behind the National Ploughing Championship, Anna May McHugh, as well as Lucinda Creighton, who’s a very brave politician. She did a very difficult thing last year — it takes a lot of guts to stand away from the crowd.
“On a global level, I’m inspired by Hilary Clinton. She was able to turn herself from a First Lady, whose husband had supposedly been unfaithful, to becoming a great American Secretary of State.
“The women I’m inspired by have a focus and passion that allows them to create pathways, where nobody has gone before. Somebody else would be sitting at home having a cup of tea.”
“My mom and my grannies top my list of everyday women who inspire me. My late Granny Dwyer was incredible. She had 15 children, that was a lot of mouths to feed. They had a farm and I remember her constantly looking after everyone. She was very maternal, the kindest, most generous person.
“My Granny Kennedy inspires me because she’s really feisty and honest — I enjoy her. She’ll tell you straight out what she thinks and I’m like her that way — but a mouth like that can get you in trouble. She’s 80 odd now and she goes off on holiday, to places like Tenerife — she knows how to live life.
“My mom, Eileen, has just got this maternal sense of love — she wants to keep us all under her wing and mind everybody. She works hard too. You grow up with these strong female role models and you learn how to carry on your own life. “Celebrity-wise, Beyoncé is inspirational. She’s a bit of a machine. She has built an entire empire out of her own talents. She’s got the family thing going on, she’s got a great body without being Hollywood skinny and she seems quite stable for someone who’s a massive icon.”
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