Blaith, Our Mother

Our beautiful, stylish mother was born in the 1920’s in the West of Ireland, spending her childhood between the lovely countryside of County Clare on the Atlantic coastline, and the bustling city of Limerick with its port on the Shannon River.

She was the second youngest of six children, who, with her four brothers egging her on, was somewhat of a tomboy, riding horses, climbing trees, swimming and playing a number of other sports, including, field hockey, tennis and golf.

Like all of her siblings, she received a full classical education that developed in her an interest in many things, including, a love of languages (she spoke four (English, Gaelic, French and German) fluently, and was learning a fifth, Italian.

Born into a family of comfortable means in an intensely Catholic country newly independent of its 400 years of British rule, the fragility of Ireland’s early years of independence between WWI and WWII and her religious upbringing would help define the rules (both conventional and unconventional) by which she lived the rest of her life, and in turn, would instill in her four children.

Her education and language abilities (and we are sure her good looks didn’t hurt either) won her a coveted job working for the then fledging land-based operations of Pan American World Airways at Shannon Airport. It was the first place at which planes landed when crossing the Atlantic from North America, and the last place from which they departed when making the long Atlantic crossing westbound. It was also the place at which she was to meet her future husband, our father, a young man born and bred in New York City, who himself had opted to join the fledgling international airline business upon his return from WWII. Their happy marriage of 39 years until her death in 1985 would take them (and us) to both live and visit many parts of the world.

As creative as she was bold, being able to survive and prosper in a quickly changing world was a mantra of hers throughout our childhood. She taught us that to truly survive, however, one needed not only a great education (which we all received during our childhood and beyond in England and the U.S.), but also to develop one’s character and other traits in as many different ways as possible, including through learning to play a variety of sports “for the pleasure of fair play, not winning at all costs”, developing an interest in music, dance and the visual arts, in forging strong and lasting friendships, and last but not least, in taking on a good challenge beyond the safe and comfortable world in which we lived.

When we decided to launch our initial Naylor & Naylor collection of bench-made luxury Italian leather accessories and jewelry with its signature Double Wrap Bracelet, it was obvious that the woman who had passed on her strength and love of challenge and adventure to us, would be the person after whom we would name it.

Like our mother, it is a classic piece that epitomizes a creative style to be worn by those who also wish to embrace life in all its guises.