Celia Holman Lee: Limerick ladies ‘best for style’

Limerick women make great models due to their beauty and are far more stylish than women from Dublin or Cork, fashion queen Celia Holman Lee has said.

Presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award yesterday at the 2013 Limerick Person of the Year awards for her work to promote Limerick fashion, Ms Holman Lee said: “I would say Limerick women are extremely glamorous. Whether they are more stylish than Dublin women or Cork women? My opinion is yes, we are.”

Ms Holman Lee, who started out as a model over 45 years ago, said: “I think JFK got it right on his visit here in 1963, when he referred to the beauty of Limerick women.”

Ms Holman Lee, who is in her 60s and a grandmother, said: “I have one of the most successful modelling agencies in the country. The secret of that is down to the talent of the Limerick models who come on board.

“It’s like the rugby here in Limerick, it’s the same with modelling: you need good stock, you need good models, you need good people and that’s what I have. So obviously JFK got it right.

“Limerick women are very beautiful and are always very aware of their appearance, very classy, they have great taste in clothes. I have always felt that.

“I always feel at fashion shows in Limerick, the audience are more glamorous than we are on the ramp.”

Multi award-winning novelist Donal Ryan was named as the 2013 Limerick Person of the Year. The announcement was at a gala awards lunch in the Clarion Hotel.

Mr Ryan, 37, who lives in Castletroy, achieved worldwide acclaim for his debut novel The Spinning Heart which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2013. The publication also won the Bord Gáis Energy Book of the Year 2012 and the 2013 Guardian First Book Award.

“I am overwhelmed and humbled and all I can do is accept this award on behalf of the other 11 nominees — all incredible people. This is a massive honour and even though I am a Tipperary man, I love to say I am proud to be from Limerick.”

The novel, written in 2010, has been described as an original, poignant and timely debut, and one of the first literary novels to deal with the social and human effects of Ireland’s financial collapse.

Mr Ryan was nominated among 11 others who included global entrepreneurs the Collison brothers; rugby star Conor Murray; local fundraisers Fergal Deegan, Shellie Murtagh and Martin Kiely; Limerick’s senior hurlers; and local representatives on the Irish women’s rugby team.

Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Kathleen Leddin, paid tribute to the “raw and exceptional talent” of Mr Ryan, saying he has made an outstanding contribution to Limerick, particularly as it celebrates its reign as National City of Culture 2014.

Previous winners of the Limerick Person of the Year award include JP McManus, Paul O’Connell, local activists Helen O’Donnell and Richard Lynch, and Thomond Park developer Pat Whelan.