A New Life: A break in the west was extended indefinitely when Cliona Murphy Verrier faxed her resignation from her marketing job from the Aran Islands, she tells Michelle McDonagh
It took a complete break away on a remote west of Ireland island for Cliona Murphy Verrier to realise that a hectic marketing career in the Dublin newspaper industry was no longer for her.
And once that realisation hit her, Cliona wasted no time in getting out of the job, faxing her resignation from one of the Aran Islands, Inis Meain, where she had gone to escape from the stress of her working life.
Her current job as a tarot card reader couldn't be more different from her previous marketing career. Instead of having to cope with the pressure of constant deadlines and targets, Cliona now runs her own little business in Galway where she is in total control of her own work schedule.
Originally from Newcastle West, Co Limerick, Cliona headed for the big smoke after finishing boarding school in Athlone. She worked for a while in a nightclub on Leeson Street before getting a job with the Sunday Business Post.
"The Dublin experience was great and I would recommend that every young person spend a couple of years there. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the place to be, but I got to the stage where I just had enough and I needed some time to chill out, relax and live in a more stress-free environment," she says.
With the newspaper going through a difficult period, Cliona, a single mother at the time, was offered a new commission-based contract.
She took a two-week holiday from the job and went to Inis Meain with her daughter, Anoushka, to ponder their future.
She says: "I realised I was not happy with the idea that people in a boardroom were in control of what was happening in my life.
"It was a very worrying, uncertain time. I decided I had to go for the sake of my health and sanity and I faxed my resignation from the island."
Although happy with her decision, Cliona had taken a huge risk. She had the responsibility of raising her child alone, had no job and no idea what she was going to do next.
Feeling very comfortable in the west, she decided to stay on the island for a while until she got her head together, as she puts it. She ended up living and working in the hospitality industry there for the next two and a half years.
Cliona then decided to move to Galway where she was determined that whatever she did, she would never work for anybody else again - she wanted to be in control of her own work and her own life.
Her interest in tarot reading had been sparked at an early age and she bought her first deck of cards at the age of 14. She always felt she had a gift for the craft, possibly from her grand-aunt, former Limerick county councillor Marian Finn.
Seven years ago, she opened her own business, Karma Tarot, in a tiny premises on Middle Street. Since then, the business has taken off.
As a strong believer in fate, Cliona thinks it was her destiny to be in the right place at the right time.
Fate again intervened in her life in 1992 when she met her husband-to-be, an education consultant who was working with her daughter at the time.
Most of Cliona's business is repeat or through word of mouth and she gets people coming to her from all walks of life, from political figures and sports people to those in the arts and the army.
Clients travel from around the State, including Dublin, to hear what the cards have in store for them.
She says: "It's not just about reading the cards; a lot of people are looking for advice and direction in their lives. I am very much into the holistic and healing side of things and I refer people on for homeopathy, counselling, bioenergy and even colonic irrigation where I feel it is needed."
The vast majority of Cliona's clients (75 per cent) are women while the remainder are men, who have usually been sent by a partner or female relative.
The motivation for having cards read varies from person to person, but the major issues are relationships, emotional problems and work matters.
"To be in this job you have to be interested in and like people and to be patient. I really enjoy meeting the people who come into me, but I do hear some fairly harrowing stories," she says.
Although Cliona firmly believes that when used properly, the gift of tarot reading can help and guide people through difficult life choices, she is more than aware that there are plenty of people out there who abuse the "gift" - she regards premium-rate psychic telephone lines as a total rip-off, along with fortune tellers who claim to be able to give winning Lotto numbers.
Living only five minutes from the lake at Annaghdown outside Galway city, Cliona loves her west-of-Ireland-lifestyle and wouldn't dream of swapping it for the traffic and stress of her former life in Dublin.
• To contact Cliona Murphy Verrier at Karma Tarot, telephone (091) 791420.