Fairies sprinkle their magic dust in Tullyallen
IF you look very carefully, you’ll spot some new residents in the village of Tullyallen.
Locals out for their daily walk have been thrilled to see some tiny, brightly coloured doors dotted around the local village and children in the area have been busy hunting the fairies who decided to move in to the area and spread a little magic dust to help the local children smile through all the uncertainty that the current Coronavirus crisis has brought.
‘ The fairies have gotten together and they know the children are very worried and they want to do something to help,’ explained Niamh Sherwin Barry from the Irish Fairy Door Company. ‘Queen Kate got in touch with us and asked if we could help distribute these very special fairy doors so we said we would help her out.’
The company left a large box of fairy doors in the Centra in Tullyallen and encouraged local families and children to take one to put in their homes or gardens.
‘ The idea is that the fairies know that when children see a fairy door they’re more likely to smile and the fairies become more magical everytime a child smiles and they can fly higher and release more magic so they want to see as many children as possible smiling and spotting fairy doors and believing in the magic.’
Within a short space of time, a new fairy community could be seen in the village as they moved in at the Glen Emmets pitch and at numerous other spots in the village.
‘What I wanted to do was create something that would not only benefit the children of the hosue but also any child walking by who can spot the fairy doors on their daily outing,’ said Niamh who revealed the response to the idea has been extremely positive.
The businesswoman moved to Tullyallen six years ago with her husband Oisín and their two children at what was a difficult time in their lives and said the community in the village has been extremely welcoming and supportive.
‘We used to live in Monasterboice,’ explained Niamh, who is originally from Dublin. ‘We were there for 12 years living the Celtic Tiger dream and then it all came crashing down and we lost everything in the recession. We moved here in 2014. To leave one community in such awful circumstances and to be welcomed in to another so wholeheartedly is amazing so we wanted to give something back. It’s just the nicest place, so open and welcoming to the core.
Niamh and Oisín set up The Irish Fairy Door company in 2013, while the country was in the depths of recession. ‘At the time we genuinely didn’t have a spare tenner between us,’ said Niamh. ‘ My Mam had given up smoking nine years before and she had saved the money she would have spent on cigarettes, €8,500, so she gave us that to start the company.’
The fairy doors were an instant hit, capturing the imagination of the public.
‘No more than now but for a different reason people were looking for something positive and something with a universal feel that would appeal to the adults and the chlidren. It’s about making memories with your own children. It was the story as well as the product that really resonated with people, they got behind it even more because of that.’
Within three weeks of starting the business, Niamh was being interviewed on Ireland AM and RTE’s Ryan Tubridy got behind the brand, singling it out for mention on the Toy Show that year and while there have been bumps along the way the company grew and thrived.
Despite the current uncertainty for many businesses, Niamh said they are optimistic the company and others will weather the storm and said they are lucky most of their business is done through online orders.