Cherry Brandon: Cherry Brandon, a horsewoman who hunted, bred and was an all-round enthusiast, as well as being an accomplished amateur gardener, author of children's books and an artist who collaborated with designer Georgio Armani, has died aged 76.
A designer of note, she was better known abroad as the colourist amanuensis for the man she always called Mr Armani. No fashion season was launched without her colour suggestions and schemes appearing. Armani would tell his staff: "Leave Mrs Brandon on her hill and she'll come up with the ideas."
And she did - her sense of colour was so vivid that one had to wonder where this betimes reticent and rather shy woman got her luscious and vivid coloration.
She exhibited over many years and her works full of imagination were much sought after by the discerning. Late in her working life, she had an Indian summer, exhibiting in London, Dublin and Portugal.
She was also included in the artists exhibitions in the Laois County Arts programme, as well as being one of the Laois artists included in the pantheon of artists marked by the Laois Arts Office and the Dunamaise Arts Centre which honoured her work with a major solo exhibition. She was preparing for several further exhibitions when she died.
Cherry Brandon's background was Anglo-Irish and Church of Ireland. She was reared by her paternal grandfather in his Dublin house and the place she called home, Ceoltown House in Co Westmeath. This was home to her Birmingham grandparents, whose dejure title was Earl of Athenry but unclaimed as they had long ceased to have estates in that county.
She was born Dublin in 1931 and attended school in Mersham Grange in England. In 1939 with the onset of the second World War, she was evacuated to Dublin where she was raised by her grandparents in Booterstown. Her grandfather, Lionel Orr, was chairman of Mineral Water Distributors.
A major and long-lasting influence on her outlook and artistic work was the interest which her nanny took in her development and in her artistic leanings. In later life and indeed in all interviews she constantly referred to her nanny as being a major influence in the direction which she took in the arts.
She was brought up to the idea, now an old-fashioned one espoused by few, of duty before self. As a reflection of this, she was a serving board member the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for 61 years until her death.
She was married to Ernest Brandon, a Church of Ireland clergyman from a Northern landed family who served as rector of Celbridge with Straffan, and then Horetown and Taghmon in Co Wexford where he was until his retirement. He was the precentor of the Ferns diocese.
Cherry was also deeply interested in the Church, its history and liturgy and in the flora of the Holy Land, a topic on which she often lectured when her husband went there to minister to the Anglican community. She could drive around Wexford and Kilkenny and point with pride to churches, many of them now closed, where her family and Ernest's had served as priests in the Church of Ireland over the last two centuries.
Both she and Ernest rode with Wexford hunts and her father-in-law had hunted there before them, notably the Bree pack. She developed her equine interests and purchased the dam of Rockbarton, one of Ireland's legendary show jumpers in the 1970s and 1980s.
She bred many foals from the mare, Golden Lily, which she sold all over the world. She kept one, Golden Victory, who won in RDS Dublin, Hickstead, Germany and Libya when partnered by Con Power, Colin Turkington and Kieran Rooney.
She was a life member of the RDS Dublin and attended her 70th Horse Show this summer. She was for many years district commissioner for the Pony Club.
Her observations of farm animals is reflected in her book Cherry's Farm which was sold out and was short listed for the Bisto Book Award and the Eilís Dillon Award in 2006. A second volume is due to be published 2008. Her Christmas cards, particularly those for her local charity, the Carlow/Kilkenny home care hospice team, were much sought after.
Her gardens contained many rare species and it gave her the greatest pleasure to open them as a fundraiser for the hospice movement. Being a gardener's gardener meant that other garden owners of importance exchanged and gave her prize specimens.
She was the devoted owner to two sagacious Jack Russell terriers named (appropriately for the wife of a rector), Jezebel and Salomé.
Cherry Brandon was also a loving mother, grandmother and friend. Such was her popularity that it took almost two hours for the mourners to offer their sympathy and condolences to her daughter Faith, son-in-law Peter and their children, her adored and much-loved granddaughters Emma, Sarah and Julia.
At the last moment after the clergy had delivered their benisons, the local huntsman played Gone Away on his horn, the hunting world's Last Post.
She is buried with her husband Ernest.
Cherry Brandon: born January 26th 1931; died October 26th, 2007