GERALDINE O’SULLIVAN
Memories and the Secret Bits …
By Lynda Cookson
Geraldine O’Sullivan leaned back in her dining room chair and stretched out her tanned legs. ‘The 80’s were just so bad!’ she laughed. We were sitting in her West Cork home nestled in the farmlands of Ballylibert.
At a time when most young Leaving Cert. hopefuls went into banking, the civil service or teaching, Geraldine studied art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She specialised in textiles and graduated with first class honours but finding work in the 80’s in Ireland was very difficult indeed. Luckily Kilkenny Design and the Crafts Council of Ireland came into being when Irish design sense was still raw. They were partly funded by the Irish government and their aim was to upgrade crafts, to take skill bases and sharpen them in packaging, presentation and design. ‘It was a pivotal time and I was lucky enough to work for Kilkenny Design and part time with Fashion Designer Paul Costello. My work became more commercial, designing fabrics rather than painting pictures.’
