Maeve Dennehy and Tara Lyng on turning their grief into a fundraising success story

When Maeve Dennehy lost her sister and mum to cancer, and Tara Lyng’s husband passed away suddenly, the two joined forces to raise more than €46,000 for Marymount and The Children’s Grief Centre. Vickie Maye meets two powerhouses – and finds out how the money will make a tangible difference

Maeve Dennehy and Tara Lyng, who raised over 43k for charity with a fashion show in Seventy Seven earlier this year, with the money being divided between Marymount and the Children's Grief Centre in Limerick. Picture: Brian Arthur

Maeve Dennehy and Tara Lyng open up the calculators on their phones, adding up the final tally.

€41,608. The two business women behind a charity fundraiser that will see €20,804 go to Marymount University Hospital and Hospice, and the same amount be presented to the Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick, are giddy at their success.

But behind their smiles are stories of raw grief and deep loss.

Maeve Dennehy, owner of Love Cherish in Charleville, lost her sister and mum to cancer. Marymount, she says, was a shining light to them all in those dark days. She was determined to raise funds for the hospice.

Three years ago, Tara Lyng — sister of Kilkenny senior hurling manager Derek Lyng — saw her charity appeals on social media. The co-owner of Dwyers bar in Cork City reached out to offer help — and to be a venue for Dennehy’s Love Cherish fundraising fashion shows.

This year, as they joined forces for their third fundraiser, a new charity was added to the bill: The Children’s Grief Centre.

This year, Tara Lyng and Maeve Dennehy joined forces for their third fundraiser. Picture: Brian Arthur

Lyng had endured her own deep loss. Last summer, as she holidayed in Rhodes, Greece, with her family, her husband Johnny O’Connor passed away suddenly.

Without warning, she lost her life partner of 22 years, her two daughters lost their father.

The Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick would be Lyng’s shining light in her dark days.

Most mums, especially those with girls of a certain age, have watched their kids play with slime, endlessly pulling and stretching the goo through their little fingers.

For Lyng, this has been so much more than just a passing phase for her daughters.

It would help them to begin to understand the grieving process. She says of her daughter:

She was telling me that the bubbles in the slime, they’re like, the waves of grief, and sometimes they burst, and that’s when all the emotions play out.

A free service, almost entirely dependent on charity funds, Dennehy and Lyng’s fundraising will ensure the employment of a new counsellor at the centre.

“It’s going to be a 20-hour week job with the money that we’ve given, and it’s going to clear 15 appointments in the week. So that’ll be 15 kids, 15 families each week,” says Lyng.

Dennehy and Lyng’s fundraising will ensure the employment of a new counsellor at the Children's Grief Centre. Picture: Brian Arthur

With her dynamic social media presence, and vibrant personality, Dennehy’s fundraisers have always been a huge success.

However, the two women are visibly blown away by the reaction to this most recent sell out event, ‘Sip, Style & Sparkle’, in January in Lyng’s second bar, Seventy Seven.

The format — an afternoon welcome drink, followed by a Love Cherish fashion show and live music — sounds deceptively simple.

Inside the bar, the atmosphere was electric. Dennehy’s social media and Love Cherish fans were there to party. Beginning at 4pm, by 9pm — when the doors to Seventy Seven reopened to the public — it was like the afters of a wedding.

This year, Dennehy also launched her new collaboration with Hope and Ivy at the event, which saw paintings of iconic Irish landscapes — Gougane Barra among them — printed onto flowing full- length summer dresses.

Women turned up for fashion and fun — and they made money for two crucial charities in the process.

Mairead O’Keeffe, CEO of The Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick, knows the difference this one fundraiser will make to children’s lives, and the additional support it will provide.

“We currently have 12 part-time staff: Five part time support workers that work directly with children. In 2024, we offered 3,019 appointments and 374 children were seen in the centre,” says O’Keeffe.

Maeve and Tara presenting the cheque to Mairead O’Keefe, CEO, and Carol Fitzgough, fundraising, both from the Childrens Grief Centre in Limerick. Picture: Brian Arthur

The centre, which moved into a state of the art building two years ago, is desperately needed.

“In 2024, the reason for referral was 54% bereavement, 38% separation, and 8% both bereavement and separation,” she says, adding that the Growing up in Ireland survey revealed that 2.2% of nine year olds had lost a parent, 1% a sibling, and 28% had experienced the death of a grandparent.

The waiting list at the Grief Centre is currently five to six months, a figure O’Keeffe is desperately trying to reduce. The centre is the only one of its kind in the country. People travel nationwide for the supports, from art and play therapy to one to one counselling.

Often they return during life transitions — starting secondary school for example can be a trigger according to O’Keeffe.

“We are normalising grief — people are born, people die,” said O’Keeffe.

Maeve with her sister Karen and mother Maeve, who have both sadly passed away.

The other half of the €46,000 raised was donated to Marymount last month. It was a haven for Dennehy when she lost her sister and her mum to cancer just five years apart. Her sister Karen was at her side every step of the way when she decided to open a boutique in Charleville in 2012 (she would go on to win Xpose boutique of the year).

“I just moved to Ballyhay, where my husband’s from, and realised there was nowhere to buy clothes there. I just decided, go for it. There’s a gorgeous community down there as well,” she said.

Dennehy would go on to build her own online community too. During lockdown, as many businesses faltered, Dennehy and her team would try on outfits — sales soared, so much so she had to expand, signing a lease on a warehouse to handle demand. The mother of two went on to launch her own label ‘Oh Molly’, named after her daughter (the latest collection launches tomorrow).

Oh Molly SS25 launches online on lovecherish.com and in store in sizes 8-20 tomorrow.

In those early years, when success wasn’t guaranteed, her sister Karen was her support. Dennehy was heartbroken when she was diagnosed with breast cancer just months later. She would spend a peaceful five weeks in Marymount before she passed away. She was just 39.

Her mum was diagnosed just a few weeks later with a tumour on her sinuses and passed away in Marymount in 2018. Dennehy has gone on to raise more than €178,000 for the charity to ensure other families receive the same love and care.

Already the two women are planning their next fundraising events. This is just the beginning.

• Oh Molly SS25 launches online on lovecherish.com and in store in sizes 8-20 tomorrow