Celebrating love

I THEE WED Tricia Hudson, independent celebrant at Wild Atlantic Ceremonies.

Áine Ryan

FROM front-of-house restauranteur in Navan, Co Meath, to being the celebrant at the wedding of two Canadian women on the edge of a cliff at Clare Island’s lighthouse, Tricia Hudson has been on a rather interesting journey. A degree in psychology and a daily swim in the Atlantic ocean have undoubtedly helped.
Of course, her association with the wild west coast of Co Mayo effectively goes right back to her honeymoon in 1980 with her longtime love and husband, Richard Hudson.   
They spent it in Tully on the Renvyle peninsula.
“We were staying in one of the holiday homes and the weather was very wet and, apart from gathering mussels and eating them, we discovered Louisburgh. We loved the area and the following year came to Old Head campsite with one baby. That’s how we ultimately bought the old schoolhouse in Carrowniskey in 1994. It was always associated with relief of stress and was a shared purchase with other members of our family.”
 
Moving west
Fast-forward a decade and a bit and Tricia and Richard have sold their restaurant in Co Meath in 2005 and are moving to Co Mayo full-time.
“We were essentially homeless, as our home was behind the restaurant, and since we hadn’t decided where we wanted to live and we shared the family holiday home in a place we loved – Carrowniskey – we moved west.
“It had always been a refuge for us, and over the years we would often fill the car after service in the restaurant on a Saturday night and arrive down at 3am with the two girls, Nicola and Sarah, and the two dogs, Zig and Zag. It meant we woke up in the west and we could go to the beach or climb the Reek and pack in as much as we could before leaving as late as possible on the Sunday night so the girls were back for school the next morning.”
Later, when they made the permanent move, they bought a house across the fields from Carrowniskey in Roonah Sionnach, off the road to the pier where boats leave for Clare Island and Inishturk.
“The plan was to take life easier, but Richard couldn’t be away from the frying pan for too long, so Hudson’s Pantry was born after a chat with local Louisburgh chemist John Staunton, who was moving premises. We loved Hudson’s Pantry and all the lovely people we met, but we had to close it in 2014 after Richard had two heart attacks,” Tricia explains, adding that ‘the recession had brought on its stresses’, just as it had for many small-business owners.
So the ever-energetic couple decided to take to sea, and they spent two summers running the more low-key Clare Island Lighthouse, with Richard in the kitchen and Tricia front-of-house.
The small numbers, the remote location and all that fresh air was just the tonic, says Tricia.  
Becoming involved with Louisburgh’s pioneering community outlet and bookshop Books@One was a natural next step for Tricia, while Richard took out his easel and paint brushes, his bicycle and his walking boots. Tricia had been involved with the communal initiative, Louisburgh HQ, and loved the similar community ethos at Books@One.
However, forever excited by new challenges, the lure of becoming a celebrant for key life events had been humming in the back of her mind for some time.  
“How the Celebrancy started was when I was working at Clare Island Lighthouse a couple rented out the tower for the day to hold a wedding ceremony. I remember seeing it and thinking it was amazing.
“If you spend your time in the restaurant business you experience celebrations all the time. I used to be very disappointed if we didn’t get a proposal on Valentine’s Day. I’d have all the staff on alert and would have told them to let me know if a fellow wasn’t eating his dinner because he was nervous about an impending proposal,” Tricia tells The Mayo News when we meet in a Louisburgh café.   

Celebrancy
Clearly in love with celebrating love, she trained with the Irish Institute of Celebrants and has already officiated at services at the lighthouse, as mentioned above, as well as on a helipad at Breaffy House Resort and in Westport House.
“The service I helped celebrate at Clare Island lighthouse was for two women from the US who wanted to get married in a country where gay marriage had been approved. They happened to be big bird-watchers, so the island was perfect.”
The unique aspect of Celebrancy is that participants can design their wedding, or any life service, exactly how they want it, says Tricia.
“It can have prayers, it can be pagan, it can be highly personal … my role is to help them elicit the very best and unique ritual for their special service.
Among the rituals, the Brehon tradition of hand-fasting is popular and is probably where the phrase ‘tying the knot’ comes from, she explains.
“Any fabric and colour of significance can be used to ‘bind the hands’ of the couple. It is a visually beautiful ritual usually done after the ring exchange,” she says.
Add in the option of ‘jumping the broom’ or guests ringing bells to dispel negative spirits and the idiosyncratic colour and character of these services becomes apparent.  

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For more information about Tricia Hudson’s work as a celebrant, visit Wild Atlantic Ceremonies at www.wildatlanticceremonies.ie, email info@wildatlanticceremonies.ie or call 087 7994513 .