Waterford-based bilingual celebrant Ciara (K\u00edra) O\u2019Connor is set to feature in a new RT\u00c9 documentary exploring how Ireland now marks life\u2019s biggest moments, from births to marriages and funerals, outside traditional church settings.<\/p>\n
A teacher at the Gaelscoil in Ballygunner, O\u2019Connor began celebrancy training during COVID while teaching from home. What started as a favour for friends\u2019 weddings has grown into a thriving business, which she now combines with her school role in a hybrid week: teaching Monday to Wednesday and ceremonies towards the weekend.<\/p>\n
The documentary, titled \u2018Breith, B\u00e1s, P\u00f3sadh<\/a>\u2018, follows several celebrants from different backgrounds, charting how Irish family celebrations have evolved over the last decade, particularly since the marriage equality referendum. Producer Shaun Boyle of Below the Radar focuses on the personal stories behind CSO statistics and Ireland\u2019s growing openness to diverse family structures and cultures.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor specialises mainly in weddings, but also leads funeral services and increasingly popular naming ceremonies \u2013 secular gatherings where parents, families and friends welcome a child and place letters, poems and keepsakes into a \u2018memory box\u2019 for later life.<\/p>\n A proud bilingual celebrant, she weaves Gaeilge into her ceremonies<\/a> and frequently performs Celtic handfastings, where couples\u2019 hands are bound with ethically made cords from Waterford maker Anam Cara Cords, symbolically \u2018tying the knot\u2019.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor says her work is driven by a love of storytelling, people and community, and believes modern ceremonies are at their best when they are relaxed, personal, and reflect \u2018who\u2019s beside you\u2019 on the day.<\/p>\n For the latest Waterford News<\/a> and Sport<\/a>, tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waterford-based bilingual celebrant Ciara (K\u00edra) O\u2019Connor is set to feature in a new RT\u00c9 documentary exploring how Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-562581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}