It was quite a family move, from an enormous island-continent in the southern hemisphere to a very small island, 5.5km by 3km, off the west coast of Ireland. And on the face of it, Bronwyn Ferguson has a long commute, given that she leads her Sydney-based textile print design company Karolina York from her home on Inishbofin, off the Connemara coast. But it works.
Ferguson grew up in Perth in western Australia, and studied fashion and textiles. “I was 21 when I packed up my backpack and headed off” to spend a few years in Europe. A couple of years later, she met the man who would become her husband, Dave Lavelle, in his homeplace. He was working in the pub in Inishbofin’s Doonmore Hotel. Some 18 years later, after making a new life together in Sydney, with two thriving businesses, three daughters and full lives, they decided to return to live on Inishbofin, a long-held dream. They upped sticks and moved the family back to their special place.
When she was in Europe in her 20s, Ferguson went to St Martin’s college in London, took several courses in textiles and worked for John Rocha in 2002 and 2003 on his London Fashion Week shows, a period when “I was first introduced to textiles in a different way. Very experimental. We would dye shoes with coffee. It was a really exciting time of my career. I was only 23 and I decided, you know what, I need to explore more of the world. And somehow I ended up here on Inishbofin to explore more of the world.”
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After she and Lavelle got together, there was a bit of toing and froing, then they set off to travel together, ending up in Australia, where they traversed the Nullarbor from Perth to Sydney. Settling there, Lavelle worked in construction, and Ferguson in fashion.
“I realised there was no one in Australia selling textiles [design], and I had all this experience behind me.” She and a business partner set up a design studio, choosing the fictional name Karolina York. They were “creating prints by hand. We would literally be picking up pens and drawing on to silk swatches. I was 25, walking around to huge fashion designers in Australia saying, ‘You need to buy our artwork. It’s original.’ You’d start drawing in one corner”, finish the design and “go out and sell it the next day”.
It took off; she started selling to the US. “I would sit in economy for 13 hours drawing one print, to get off in LA and sell. That’s how we had to work, because it was all done by hand.” Her glorious, vibrant, colourful designs, abundant florals and bohemian patterns, are bought by big fashion names internationally, from H&M and Zara to Primark, printed on to fabric and used to make clothes.
“We got married in 2011 in a field beside Dave’s family home on Bofin. Forty-five Australians travelled over for the wedding. His father caught the lobster. We had local lamb and bread.”
If Dave hadn’t been from Bofin, if he’d been from the mainland, I don’t think I would’ve said yes to moving over here
Back in Sydney, her design business was flourishing. Lavelle started an events company in 2013. They had three daughters. Life was good, full of action and busyness, surrounded by water and the great outdoors. They were doing well and they both worked hard. “I didn’t take proper maternity leave. I worked with the kids playing under the table.”
But “we had always talked about coming back to live in Bofin”. In 2020 Ferguson’s youngest sister died of breast cancer. They realised how short life was, and decided to make it happen, wanting their girls to have an Irish childhood. “I wanted them to know they were Irish” and not just to have an Irish background.
So in February 2022, after 18 years away, the family of five moved to the island, off the north Connemara coast, which has about 180 residents and is reached by ferry from Cleggan pier on the mainland. The island had hooked her long ago. “If Dave hadn’t been from Bofin, if he’d been from the mainland, I don’t think I would’ve said yes to moving over here.”
Within a short time of them moving, both of Lavelle’s parents died: his father in Christmas 2022, and his mother the following June. It was important they knew they would come home with the girls, says Ferguson.
With impressive transcontinental flexibility, they both run their Australian businesses from Inishbofin. Ferguson says her wifi is better than it was in Sydney, and being based in Europe makes going to fashion and textile fairs – an essential part of her job – easier. “Living here in Europe, I can be in a trade show within two hours.”
Talking this month at a presentation to Birds of a Feather on Inishbofin, a Shared Island project gathering crafting women’s groups from Ireland north and south, Ferguson compared it to years travelling from Sydney for work, giving one example: “I left Inishbofin on the 9am ferry, drove to Shannon Airport, got on a flight to New York, and had dinner in New York. And I felt like I was cheating, like it wasn’t hard enough.” From Sydney that would be 14-hour long-haul, then a six-hour American flight. “It is really possible from here. Every time I land in Europe, I feel like it should be harder. I meet my team, who’re jet-lagged. I’m like, yeah, it’s was a tough ferry crossing.”
The girls are so free here. Life is easier. Theirlives in Sydney were so structured. Here they just get in their wetsuits and go down to the sea
Ferguson “started on my own, but we are a creative force of women. Our studio in Sydney is a really creative space.” They use lino-cuts, Shibori dyes, watercolour. What they design ends up on computer, but the studio is “very much about the hand. We’ve designed over 59,000 original artworks. We only design one of each, and we can never sell it again. We still really instil the importance of hand-drawing. If it wasn’t for my team I wouldn’t be able to live here on Inishbofin. It’s the most stunning place. And I am very lucky to be here and to be amongst so many other crafting women on Bofin. I love it here.”
She was “always very big into ocean swimming, and I wanted a sauna”. Because they’re both in business, their instinct was to go large, and open it to the public, so Sauna Bó Finne was born on the island’s East End, offering social or private saunas.
With Lavelle’s construction skills, the couple dream of building their own home on the island, “on the field where we got married”. Planning permission is hard to get, even for an islander; they’ve been refused twice but will apply again.
Ferguson seems to have settled in well on the island; in a small place everyone knows each other, and she has made connections. Their girls, now aged 10, nine and seven, love their life. “It’s about giving your kids the experience. They are so free here. Life is easier. The girls’ lives in Sydney were so structured. Here they just get in their wetsuits and go down to the sea. It’s very, very different to their lifestyle in Australia.” They’re in the island’s small national school, while their school in Sydney was much bigger.
There’s no secondary school on the island, and teenagers either have to move into Clifden during the week, often with a parent, or go boarding. But for Ferguson, what happens after primary is “a tomorrow problem”.
They’ve just had a summer full of visitors, with family and friends joining them, including her late sister’s husband and children. She has the best of both worlds, with the wildness and chilled simplicity of island life, interspersed with bursts of cities on her work trips. She’s had to adapt, including learning “a lot of car maintenance and how to swap batteries” when salt water gets into the car. They’ve a very busy social life: “There’s lots going on and I don’t want to miss things.”
She loves the life. “I don’t think people understand the appeal of Bofin until they come here.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com
