Meet our May Mum of the Month
The Mum of the Year awards are back and Niamh O’Reilly chats to passionate Gaeilgeoir and May’s Mum of the Month, Áine Uí Thuathail.
Áine Uí Thuathail,
We’re delighted to reveal our Mum of the Month for May is Áine Uí Thuathail, from Ros an Mhíl, Co Galway, in the heart of the Gaeltacht.
A mum of two girls, Sineád (22) and Maeve (17), Áine had no idea her daughters had secretly nominated her for the award. “It was a big surprise”, she laughs with genuine shock. “I am always entering competitions and that sort of thing and of course they both know that”, she smiles, "so I guess they thought they’d enter me in for this, but I’m very happy indeed.”
The Woman’s Way and Beko Mum of the Year Awards are back for an amazing 19th year and the search for 2022’s winner has well and truly begun.
The annual awards have become one of the most cherished events in the country and remain the perfect way to recognise the love, work and dedication demonstrated by mothers all over Ireland each and every day.
The overall winners will be crowned later in the year at a special luncheon ceremony, but until then, each month, we’ll select a very worthy Mum of the Month, who’ll be in the running to take the overall award.
PROUD GAEILGEOIR
May’s mum is no stranger to Woman’s Way. Indeed, both herself and her sister made a splash in the magazine about ten years ago. “We actually won a fantastic makeover from Woman’s Way”, she recalls. “Oh we had a lovely day over in the Twelve Hotel in Barna and we got two gorgeous outfits, it was such a great day. It’s going back to 2012, but I still have the magazine.”
A very passionate Gaeilgeoir, Áine is delighted to be representing the Gaeltacht and is utterly enthusiastic about the furtherment of the Irish language. She grew up in the beautiful surrounds of Connemara and is a native speaker. “We spoke Irish all the time when I was growing up and now with my girls, and my husband Seán, we always speak Irish at home, it’s our first language.” That delight and love of Irish has clearly passed through her and into the DNA of her two girls who are equally at ease with the language.
In some ways it feels as though Áine’s like an unofficial ambassador for the language and her love of Irish goes beyond just fluency and using it in her daily life and in her household; Áine has very much taken her passion for Irish into her working life as well. She works in the semi state organisation, Údarás na Gaeltachta, whose mission is the preservation and strengthening of Irish as a living language, as well as passing it on to the next generation.
“I work in the language planning department. So, it’s about promoting the Gaeltacht and the Irish language in particular and to try and get more people to speak it and keep it alive so that we still have Irish as our first language.” Her genuine passion for keeping Irish at the forefront is quietly powerful, especially as she helps me to pronounce Údarás na Gaeltachta properly after I butcher it during our conversation.
But it’s been a lifelong mission for Áine, who started working in the organisation when she was just 19 years old. It’s a huge achievement in itself and a rarity to find someone having such a distinguished tenure in the same organisation these days.
Maeve, Aine and Sinead.
For Áine, it feels as though winning the Mum of the Year title would be a ringing endorsement of her life’s work to support the Gaeltacht and the Irish language. “As someone who comes from the Gaeltacht, it would mean an awful lot” she admits, real emotion in her voice. “Because I haven’t heard of anybody from this area winning something like this and I feel like I would be representing the Gaeltacht a little bit.”
As Áine approaches a ‘roundy’ birthday later this year, and with her two girls at home; one finished college and the other doing the Leaving Cert next year, her life is busier than ever, but she’s keeping sanguine about it all, thanks in large part to how close she is to both Sineád and Maeve. “I’m turning the big 6-0 later this year, my birthday is in October, at this time now I don’t mind, but at the beginning of the year I was thinking, oh my god!”
She laughs. She and her daughters go swimming once a week in the local leisure centre and love spending time together, but during the pandemic it wasn’t always so easy, although with a naturally sunny disposition, Áine still manages to find the positives.
“Well, it gave us time to sit down as a family, you know because I was working from home for the last two years. There wasn’t as much stress, I didn’t have to rush off in the morning. It was good to take life easier, because before this it used to be running off to work in the morning, coming home in the evening, going out again to do shopping and getting the housework done.” Áine admits, despite the positive aspects, the successive lockdowns were tough on her daughters. “Maeve missed all the discos for two years, she’s turning 18 now, but she missed all of that and Sineád was complaining all the time that she missed out on two great years of her life at college. It was very hard on them.”
COMMUNITY DRIVER
Describing motherhood as a mix between being “a nurse, a counsellor and always being there to help”, Áine drew on her obvious strengths to help them both navigate the uncharted waters of Covid. “We used to go on walks and used to go for a drive and meet up with friends when we could, so it wasn’t too bad, but at times very challenging.”
According to Áine’s eldest daughter Sineád, it was her mum that got her through the ravages of the pandemic.
“Over 4 years ago, I started doing my Social Care course in Waterford Institute of Technology. Mum always encouraged to keep going when things got tough, especially during lockdown. I had to leave college and my great friends in
Waterford and study at home. This was very challenging, but with her help I managed to get through.” Áine’s generosity of spirit extends beyond her commitment to her family and passion for the Irish language, she’s also been a major driver behind projects in the community, such as the new football pitch, as well as developing education resources for the area. “The school needed renovating so we’ve a state-of-the-art national school now. We didn’t have a preschool for many years, so I sent out a letter to all the parents in the area and helped get the project going.”
The epitome of the humble Irish mum, unassuming and modest, Áine’s not one to blow her own trumpet. However, she doesn’t need to, as it’s abundantly evident from the close relationship she has with her two daughters that she's doing a terrific job. The trio are off on their holidays, soon after we speak, and her excitement is palpable.
“This is the second time; we were over in Santa Ponsa last October as well.” Husband Seán will be sitting this one out, it seems as “he has some jobs to do on the house, so he’s happy to stay at home and he’ll get more done when we’re away” Áine laughs.
“We can’t wait.” It’s not often you see such a relaxed closeness between a mum and children of this age, and one can’t help but admire it.
“I am very close to my two daughters” Áine gushes and in a beautiful nod to the tradition her mother started, Áine’s daughter Sineád has a ritual of getting her mum the new issue of Woman’s Way and a cup of coffee, as they catch up on life. Congratulations Áine!