Meet the Mayo woman aiming to build Westport out of Lego

"Don't ask me out on Saturday night because I’m busy washing my Lego,” Mayo native Caroline Drake Conway laughs as she takes us into her world of Lego.

She moved back home to Westport two years ago and has been running very popular Lego workshops for children under the banner of 'Mixie’s Brixies'.

Mixie's Brixies is named after Caroline’s late father, Micksie Conway, and it is based in his old workshop. It was only during the Covid-19 pandemic that she and her two boys started taking their Lego collection back out from storage in the garage.

“It just kind of snowballed from there. Rooms in the house were converted, and sheds were built to store the Lego displays.”
The Lego workshops are very popular with school groups and sensory groups, and she plans to run Lego workshops for adults in the future too.

She lights up when she explains that participants “can build from their imagination, using the freestyle Lego or build sets from the instructions, and it gets them away from the devices for a couple of hours and everybody's happy!

“It’s amazing, you could have thirty or forty kids in some of the workshops, and it's so quiet. It's amazing, a room full of children, and they're so concentrated. It's lovely when they finish a piece, and they're so excited.”

WESTPORT IN LEGO

Her ultimate plan is to build Westport in Lego, and she is actively looking for a display space in the town to showcase her Lego creations.

She currently has well-known Westport landmarks such as Octagon, the Clock, and Trisha’s Kitchen in Lego form.
In the future, the enthusiastic creator hopes to be able to sell versions of these sets, as well as a small brick mosaic depicting the town, to those living far from home as a memento.

She also commissioned a Canadian designer to create a Lego version of St Mary’s Church in Westport.

The magnificent design has 22,500 Lego blocks in it and comes with a fully fitted interior and is wired with lighting.
Test builders in the UK made sure all the pieces fit together and were then meant to dismantle it and send it on to Caroline in Ireland.

“But when they built it, they were so impressed with it, they didn't want to dismantle it, and so they drove it home from London.”

She plans to put it on display in the church and can change the scenes to suit different events. She has Lego versions of local characters such as Fr John Kenny, Ollie Whyte, and Pakie McEvilly, as well as St Patrick getting rid of the snakes (and the Dublin team!).

WORKSHOP TOUR

Those were far from the only homages to Mayo scattered throughout the maze of creations.

On one shelf, the front of Matt Molloy’s bar sits proudly, while on another, an astronaut waving a green and red flag as he floats through space can be found.

In a corner, a version of the Statue of Liberty with a miniature Sam Maguire sits, with the flame of Lady Liberty’s torch replaced by an O’Neill’s ball.

The boundless creativity of Caroline is clear to see, even without going into the dozens of non-Mayo-themed creations adorning the many nooks and crannies.

When her children were growing up, their fascination with Lego wasn’t quite shared by their mother.

“I wasn't too gone on Lego everywhere,” she smirked. However, that decision to take out those bricks from the garage lit a spark that has only grown and grown.

Now, it has created something truly special. Stepping through the door of her father’s old workshop reveals a Lego builder’s paradise.

From the drawers of colour-coordinated bricks to the hundreds of mini-figures staring back at you, it’s easy to see how the days could be whittled away, letting your imagination run wild.

If the hospitality, passion, and sincerity we were blessed to experience when coming through the doors of Mixie’s Brixies is the same as that which those who attend the workshops receive, then there’s no reason this venture would be anything short of a hit.

If you are interested in learning more about the Mixies Brixies workshops, more information can be found by clicking here.