Sara O’Neill: ‘Every flower, every plant, every building has a story’

Irish myths and legends are key to Sara O’Neill’s work. Her icons, as depicted in her prints on silk and linen, or handpainted on leather, are inspired by the stories her grandmother would tell her. Alice Kennedy came from a small farm in Glencree, and her tales, of banshees and changelings, have been a constant thread in O’Neill’s work. “The garments are vehicles for storytelling,” she says.

This has been a particularly busy year for O’Neill, some highlights of which have included painting two leather jackets for The Edge for U2′s Sphere shows in Las Vegas and creating pieces for the stars of NI Opera for Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the Ulster Orchestra at the Ulster Hall. On March 28th, she will provide the finale for the ARC Fashion Show at the RDS in Dublin, with pieces from her Midnight in Bloom, Children of Lir and Róisín Dubh collections.

We meet in Dublin, where she is bringing her latest collection called Róisín Dubh – grey and white pencil drawings printed on linen featuring horses, birds and flat roses – to be photographed. “It’s more raw than my usual pieces,” O’Neill says, showing a long full skirt with these dramatic motifs, a new silhouette for her with the added drama of a black tulle cape.

“I try to do pieces that are loose fitting because bodies change over the years, so I try to make my designs as versatile as possible.” Hence her focus on shapes like kimonos or wrap dresses that are made to suit different silhouettes comfortably. All are handmade and some take up to three months to complete.

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Raised in Portrush, O’Neill has connections north and south of the island. Her mother Bernadette, a retired nurse, grew up in Dublin’s Coleraine Street, the eldest of ten, before moving to Raheny. Her parents met when both were studying in Manchester. They moved to live on the north Antrim coast in Portrush, where Sara, her brother and sister were born, “but I would have been in Dublin three or four times a year, so it always felt like a second home”, she says.

Determined to do fashion from an early age, O’Neill became a teenage punk as “a mask to hide my shyness”. The action made her realise how powerful images could be. Having graduated from the University of Ulster in 2004 with a degree in fashion and textiles, she initially worked successfully as a stylist and then started drawing. Solo exhibitions, the first of which sold out, led to illustration work in London and New York. She launched Éadach, which means cloth, influenced by her experiences as a stylist and her intention to create luxurious pieces “with a rock ‘n roll edge for those with a rebellious streak and a romantic soul”.

For the detailed stories in her prints, she spends days in the Linen Hall Library in Belfast. “Every flower, every plant, every building has a story,” she says. “It’s about looking at the history around us with kind eyes. In the north now we are hearing so many tales about Irish identity, so it is lovely to be part of the conversation because before it was not necessarily something you could celebrate – you just kept your head down.” She talks with great enthusiasm of “people taking ownership of Irish identity in the north”. “It’s an exciting cultural time,” she says.

O’Neill lives with her fiance, big wave surfer Alastair Mennie, overlooking the sea in Castlerock, where Mennie first learnt to surf. “I don’t surf, it would play havoc with eyeliner,” O’Neill says, with a laugh.

Her next print will be a red hand, a potent symbol in the north of Ireland and the official seal of the O’Neills, but used widely by both traditions in the north. Her red hand, however, will be a female one with nail varnish and used to hold wild flowers.

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In the meantime, her latest collection, entitled Me Auld Flower and inspired by shopping in Dublin’s Moore Street and memories of being with her grandmother, will be launched in the summer.

Tickets for the ARC Fashion Show on March 28th cost €65 and can be purchased from Eventbrite.