Born June 1st, 1938
Died June 3rd, 2023
Bronwyn Conroy, the Irish businesswoman who set up the first beauty therapy training school in Ireland, has died aged 85.
For decades, the name Bronwyn Conroy was synonymous with beauty in Ireland. Right from when she first opened her beauty therapy training school on Mount Street Upper, Dublin, in 1972, Conroy set high standards by having international examiners for her courses. And the “Bronwyn girls”, as they were called, were known to have solid training, at a time when there were no regulations for private beautician courses.
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Conroy also ran beauty salons and wrote a beauty column in the Sunday Press for 25 years. In the 1980s she developed her own range of skincare and beauty products, which were sold in pharmacies across the country and offered to passengers in Club Class on Aer Lingus flights to New York.
Conroy was born and raised in Salthill, Galway, the elder of two daughters of Molly and Frank Conroy. Following her secondary school education at Dominican College, Taylor’s Hill, Galway, she went to University of Galway to study science, but dropped out after one year.
Her parents insisted she join Aer Lingus, and she worked as a ground hostess in Shannon Airport before leaving to pursue a career in cosmetics.
It was while Conroy was working at Lydons that the American manager of the Helena Rubinstein cosmetics brand overheard her advising a customer and declared: “I want her working for us”
She offered her services free of charge to Lydons pharmacy on Shop Street in Galway as a means of learning the trade. Her enthusiasm resulted in her being taken on as an employee. “The women would ask for Ponds vanishing cream and I’d move them up to Charles of the Ritz Skin Bloom. They’d come in looking for one thing and they’d leave with five,” she said in an interview.
It was while Conroy was working at Lydons that the American manager – accompanying a regional sales representative – of the Helena Rubinstein cosmetics brand overheard her advising a customer and declared: “I want her working for us.” And so it was that Conroy began working for Helena Rubinstein. She later joined Revlon, and went on to become the director of training in Ireland for 12 years. She often quoted the words of Revlon manager Charles Revson: “You’re not selling cosmetics, you’re selling hope.”
Her daughters recall the glamour attached to the cosmetics industry during the 1970s and 1980s – a time when life was less colourful for many working mothers. “I remember her telling us about being put up in the Plaza in New York with training directors from Rome and Hong Kong, and she travelled to Moscow with Aer Rianta,” says Bronwyn Malone.
Dedicated to her beauty school, Conroy worked long hours, often interviewing potential students on Saturday mornings after a full week teaching. In 1978 she founded the Society of Applied Cosmetology in Ireland with the aim to improve the standing of beauty therapy in this country.
Conroy was a stylish and glamorous woman, and warm and generous by nature. She had a big personality and an active social life, often meeting friends at the Unicorn restaurant on Merrion Row in Dublin for Saturday lunch. She was also a regular at the Galway Races, winning best-dressed lady and later judging the competition.
Throughout her long career, Conroy stayed in touch with those who trained in her schools, travelling to open their salons. Sonia O’Dwyer, head of training at the South William Clinic, said Conroy had great vision at a time when Ireland was still quite inward looking. “She was an old-school hard worker with grit, determination and passion.”
Conroy’s sister, Virginia Clinton, said Bronwyn was a great organiser and always had a solution to problems. “She was ahead of her time in setting high standards for the beauty industry in Ireland. She never had a superior attitude, although she was a perfectionist in her approach and always driven by her work.”
As a working mother in the 1970s, Conroy employed a full-time nanny to look after her two children with her first husband, Liam Malone, in their home in Blackrock, Co Dublin. The couple later amicably separated but Malone continued to go on summer holidays and spend Christmases with Conroy and their two daughters.
The Bronwyn Conroy International Beauty School was sold in 2014 to Anna Keely, who continues to trade under its name
In the 1990s, Conroy married Robert Davitt from Wales, and the couple lived between Wales and Dublin for a number of years before later divorcing.
In her 70s, Conroy stepped back from the business, leaving her two daughters to run the beauty therapy school, then based in Blackrock, Co Dublin. The Bronwyn Conroy International Beauty School was sold in 2014 to Anna Keely, who continues to trade under its name.
In her latter years, Conroy lived in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, and enjoyed a close connection with her four grandchildren. An avid reader, walker, and bridge player, she remained fiercely independent.
Bronwyn Conroy is survived by her daughters, Sherna and Bronwyn; her grandchildren, Zoe, Ella, Ollie and Paddy; and her sister, Virginia.