Page 12 - The Iveagh Trust AR 2023

10 Annual Report 2023
CARING
Kiln View’s resident
Deborah Donnelly shares her housing story.
I’m an artist, like my mother was before me. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of playing in Merrion Square with my sisters while my mother exhibited her art on the railings there. I learned the trade from her. She was also a single parent, and as a child, we took in students, and the house was always full – it still is today.
I am one of three daughters and have three children. My eldest, Evin, is studying medicine, and I am still shocked he achieved that amidst all our housing problems. His two siblings are in secondary school and are just great kids considering the traumas we have had over the last few years. In some ways, it has made us all stronger, and they have grown up quicker.
After completing my art degree at NCAD, I saved up for a ticket to the capital of the art world, New York. There, I worked in a huge gallery as a ghost painter. We painted another artist’s paintings
for him, and I got the most amazing experience of how the art world works. I won a green card
in the visa lottery, and everything was going from strength to strength. Then, September 11th happened, and I just wanted to come home – I thought it was the end of the world.
I came home, and that is when I found out I was pregnant with my son. It was definitely a struggle
PHOTOGRAPHER: JENNY BARKER