Pilates dream coming through for Kildare woman

WHILE Dearbhaile Donagh was living in Australia, she became involved with pilates as part of the wider Australian wellness ethos.

At the time, she didn't think she would be opening a pilates studio of her own in Kilcullen this week. But then, life has its own way of planning for all of us.

Dearbhaile is originally from Naas and went to Australia in 2009.

"I landed in Sydney, and it was freezing," she remembers. "I told myself I hadn't come all the way to Australia to be cold, so I immediately left and went to Brisbane."

On the sunny Gold Coast, life was all outdoors and much more focused on health and fitness.

"It's just so much more accessible, and I got really into it."

She also really got into building a career in venue and event management. After six years, though, it was time to come home, where she moved into a similar role — she is now operations and events director with the Executive Forum. 

After living with her parents in Naas for a while, she eventually bought a house in Kilcullen, where she has an aunt and uncle who have lived there for many years.

"I wasn't quite sure how that would work out, because all my friends were in Naas, but I moved in anyway at Christmas 2019."

Three months later, Dearbhaile and the country were in lockdown.

"That's when I really fell in love with Kilcullen. It was a great place to go for walks; it was just lovely and quiet and had nice road circuits in the countryside around.

“I had been going in and out of Dublin constantly for work, and it was only when Covid hit that I started working from home full-time."

When things got back to normal, she continued with pilates, going to a Naas studio that offered the reformer system, using machines rather than on a mat.

"I do it twice a week, and it's my happy place. It takes 45 minutes out of your busy day, where you can focus on yourself and prioritise.

And whether you do it at a beginner or an advanced level, hopefully, you leave feeling better about yourself.

“It's really like a community, where you meet like-minded people regularly, and for a while, I hoped someone would open a studio in Kilcullen and bring that vibe here. But then, I thought, why wait for somebody else to do it?"

On one of her frequent return visits to Australia, to visit friends, Dearbhaile took a reformer pilates teacher training course in Byron Bay, and, having decided to open her own studio, she is calling it Byron Pilates as a nod to that.

Finding a location proved more difficult than deciding on a name.

"I looked around Kilcullen a year ago, and there was nowhere suitable. I needed a certain amount of space, and there had to be easy parking. 

"But a while ago, the stars seemed to align suddenly, and a space became available in the Link Business Park."

The last few weeks have been hectic getting the whole enterprise together, and Dearbhaile acknowledges the help from her uncle and aunt, who have proved very skilled with paint sprayers!

Byron Pilates is opening in mid-December.

"It'll be a soft launch, with just some fundamental and beginner classes, to get people to know about it and try the machines. 

"In the new year, I'll have a full schedule in place in January, when people have got through all the Christmas stuff out of the way."

Byron Pilates will deliberately not be a big operation. Dearbhaile plans to have eight reformer units in place and to employ professional instructors.

"It's not going to be a large class that people can get lost in. It's very important that whoever is teaching can work one-to-one so that the correct movements are performed.

“Though it is a low-impact treatment, you could still hurt yourself, particularly if you're starting."

That's all part of what's an ever-nearing and hopefully exciting future, making a dream come true.

In the meantime, though, all the minutiae of setting up a business must be gone through. 

Even with Dearbhaile's organisational expertise from her career, it's making this Christmas busier than usual.