Eunice Power: 'I think I was born to be the person I am now'

'You can learn from other people and from their mistakes but you need to make your own. I don’t think that that really shines through until you’re in your 30s.'

Sun, 18 Jun, 2023 - 18:09

Mary Cate Smith

I grew up in Dungarvan, on a farm. My mother was from County Cork, near Bandon. She trained as a home economics teacher but she was put out to pasture because of The Marriage Bar.

I was very much influenced by my mother and still am, not just the creative flair and presentation but an interest in food and where it comes from.

I think I was born to be the person I am now.

This year, I was the director of the West Waterford Festival of Food. It was a very last-minute decision to do it because somebody stepped out but I absolutely loved it.

Who you are depends on the family you’re born into and when you’re the eldest, you take on responsibility. I was the right-hand woman in our house. If my mother was away, she would give me notes. I’d make hard-boiled eggs for the tea and give the lads bananas when they were hungry. I’d wash the kitchen floor and give her a full report on who behaved and who misbehaved. I was always very responsible.

In 1996, I came back to Dublin and I ended up catering the wedding for one of the guys from Zig and Zag.

I’m an unusual person. I break down everything in my mind and simplify it. We did a dinner for 2,500 people and it went perfectly because I had everything broken down into manageable pieces.

I’ve faced many challenges in life, both personally and in my business life, but I have the ability to reframe things and get around them.

My brother died by suicide and I didn’t even give myself time to process. I literally had to turn around the following week and do a wedding. Because of my ultimate professionalism, I didn’t want my personal tragedy to impact their day.

When you’re upset and you have people depending on you on both sides of the fence, you need to lead your team into the war. I have this inherent work ethic and dependability. I hate leaving anybody down. The real challenge is how to manage yourself in all of that.

You power through it because you don’t really have a choice. You can’t walk away and go to pieces, that’s not how I was brought up.

My proudest achievement is my children. I have three boys and they’re absolutely brilliant.

I’m very careful about talking about sustainability and greenwashing but I’m doing everything I can to bring the core of And Chips more local all the time.

My mum and my sisters are the ones I chat with the most. I might have an outgoing personality but I find myself becoming more and more private as the years go by. I have a circle of really good friends, some of them I’ve known for over 40 years.

My business grew organically by word of mouth. I’m now trying to be strategic halfway through my career. I was firefighting for 20 years.

You can learn from other people and from their mistakes but you need to make your own. I don’t think that that really shines through until you’re in your 30s.

I’d like to be remembered as having great chips and as a warm, caring, and fun person.

I wouldn’t change anything from my past. Well maybe, I’d have a bit more self-belief. I was part of that transition of women’s equality. While I was running a business, I was still expected to be the traditional mother and housewife.

I worked so hard, trying to keep all of those balls in the air; trying to be the good mother, the good housewife, the good employer, the good business owner, and deliver to my customers. That was tricky.

Irish women are absolutely amazing but they have been a bit unsupported. There certainly was a glass ceiling there for women.

Climate change is happening. We’re getting produce earlier than we had before and warmer weather.

We’ve gotten rid of single-use plastics in And Chips. People hand us their rubbish. We have grease traps so no grease leaves the building. And in the kitchen, all of our air is recycled and we have carbon filters so none of the fat is released outside.

People surprise me in really positive ways. I was so overjoyed by people and their positivity towards the food festival this year and I’m delighted to see how behavior is changing with regard to sustainability.

What scares me most is something happening to my children. You can probably pick up that I’m a bit of a control freak but things outside my control terrify me.

I roll along with life. I’d love to have a little bit more time off.

I’d hate to be broke. As a self-employed person, it’s bloody terrifying. That’s a big fear.

What motivates me? The bank balance. The overdraft. The payments. I’m self-employed, I’m the one taking all the risks.

It’s probably not something that people want to hear. To talk about money is considered kind of gauche, isn’t it? But if you want to be a good employer, you have that responsibility.

I had a really rough time when I first opened And Chips. I didn’t know enough about chips at all. I opened it when I was too busy and I couldn’t give it the time.

I often think I should have worked a bit harder in school because this is really tough going, it’s hard work. But this is the fork that has been taken.