In conversation with FRANCES O'ROURKE
TRISH BRENNAN
is head of fine art design at the CIT Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork. From Cloneygowan, Co Offaly, she worked and studied in London in the 1980s and held jobs in Imma and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council after returning to Ireland. She lives in Cork with her partner, Billy, and their son, Ned (4).
'I MET IVANA WHEN I was living in London, at a women's benefit night in The Fridge, the dance club in London where I was working. I left Ireland as a teenager in the 1980s, and was one of those young people who was very unhappy about what was going on at home. I would have heard of Ivana and was hugely impressed, proud of young students like her who felt they could take Ireland on.
“It was about 1991. I was in my final year in the University of Westminster, studying film and photography. I’d worked in The Fridge for years, it was my bread and butter. Ivana had been in London for about a year, doing her Master’s in LSE. We were mutually excited by each other’s worlds: I was in the arts scene, she in law. “I was working in gallery education as well as on projects that used photography to create social documents in places like Hackney. Then in 1994, funding was pulled from a project, so I came home for the next two months, after 12 years away – and never went back. The Tiger was just beginning to be born and you could feel the energy.
“We bumped into each other in Bewley’s: I said I was looking for a flat and she said, ‘let’s look together – but first why don’t you take a room in my mother’s house?’ Her mum is incredibly generous, Ivana didn’t lick it off the ground.
“Then we found a little house in Ringsend with a spiral staircase. I got a residency in Imma and made great friends there who became Ivana’s friends too. But the house was very cold and we moved to 10 Herbert Place.
“A lot of people will remember it as a very lively place: we had great parties. Once a month I’d be involved in running the Powder Bubble Club: it was a great come-all-ye, you’d have arts people, the law crew, social workers and PR queens. And Ivana would help out, and work backstage. Then I’d be helping out at law functions, would find myself washing glasses with William Binchy and Ivana; we both have that muck-in factor.
“Ivana moved out around 2000 to live with her partner Alan, and my partner Bill moved in with me. I worked in various places, then got a proper job in the CIT Crawford School of Fine Art.
“Now I have a son, Ned, who’s four, and he and Ivana’s daughters , who are six and four-and-a-half, love each other. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a more harmonious living arrangement than the time we shared the flat: I think we only had hard words once – Ivana tidies, non-stop. She would generously say I’m cleaner.
“She’s a very popular girl, but no matter how busy, always has time to call to see how you are. She’s a really good mate who manages to make space for us all.”
IVANA BACIK
is a barrister and Reid Professor of Criminal Law in TCD, leader of the Labour group in the Seanad and Seanad deputy leader. She has been a high-profile campaigner on a wide range of social issues since she was a student. She lives in Dublin with her partner, Alan and daughters Cyan (6) and Louie (4).
‘I WAS DOING MY Master’s in the London School of Economics (LSE) when I went to a benefit night for an Irish women’s support group in The Fridge, a club in Brixton, with Trish’s sister Geraldine: Trish, very tall, blonde and glamorous, worked there. We hit it off right away, were fascinated by each other’s worlds.
“I was in London for three years, did the Bar and practised for a year. I realised I loved teaching, and taught law in the National College of Ireland when I arrived back in Dublin in October 1993. Trish moved back in 1994 and we bumped into each other in Bewley’s completely by chance. We decided to get a place together and rented a little house on the canal in Ringsend, which was very tiny and very cold. We had great fun, just the two of us: I was about 27, she was 30; she was working in Imma and I got a job in TCD in 1995.
“It was a great time, we made really strong friends, and entertained them in Ringsend. And then we got the flat at 10 Herbert Place [on the Grand Canal, just off Mount Street]. We became good friends with the guys in the flat on the first floor and had joint parties. Trish would come to law events – she’s very sociable, never at a loss in a social situation – and we really enjoyed getting joint invitations.
“Alan (my partner since college days) and I moved out around 2000 and by a happy coincidence, Billy, Trish’s partner, moved into number 10. But it was so well-known as Trish and Ivana’s flat, Billy insisted on keeping my name on the bell. “Then she got the job in the Crawford as head of fine art – I’m so proud. She lives quite near where I grew up – I was born in London but we moved to Cork when I was six.
“Trish and I still see a reasonable amount of each other: after the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown election last year – we’ll draw a veil over that – the girls and I went down to get away. Cyan is six, Louie four-and-a-half and they and Trish’s Ned get on brilliantly. Alan and I go on holiday in Dungarvan in Waterford, so Trish and Billy come up to us then.
“I don’t know what it was. We hit it off right away when we met in The Fridge. We can sit and talk for hours. I have lots of friends, but we got close when we lived together one-on-one – in other flats there was always a crowd. We have an enduring friendship. It’s true that we only had hard words once – about housework, ironic for two feminist women. We fit – she’s taller than me, very glamorous and well-dressed, but we’re both very happy, sociable. And now our two families get on well too.”
