Fashion designer Niamh O'Neill: 'Starting a brand was the greatest challenge I've faced'

'Fashion is all I ever wanted to do' says the Louth-based designer and mum of two following her latest collection drop

35-year-old Niamh O' Neill started her namesake brand ten years ago and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. 

Fashion is all I ever wanted to do. When I was young I just loved anything to do with design and making and drawing and coloring. It felt natural for me to do creative things but I didn't create any masterpieces growing up. I never won anything. I was never the star. It wasn’t like I was being courted or anything because I was amazing, I just worked so hard at it and loved it so much. It’s just something I did all the time.

I’m from a small village in Co. Louth and the youngest of six, three boys and three girls. There’s a seven-year gap between the first three and the younger three, so I was a baby when my brother was going to college. It’s really strange because we know each other so well and we’re close and I speak to them all the time but at the same time we didn’t grow up together.