Bakery business is a piece of cake for Eileen

Eileen Shiels is proof that it is never too late to follow your dreams – and from a mother of seven, that’s saying something.

The woman behind Bacús Bearna bakery has no notions of stopping either, and plans to add new products to the successful brand before the end of the year.

Originally from Moycullen, Eileen was one of thirteen children born to Martin and Bridget Barrett, and it was through her early home life that the love of baking first took hold.

“As a child, I was always watching my mother baking,” she recalls.

“All the girls were great cooks – the girls did everything for boys then – but there was no money to put people through college. I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do, and my mother thought this would be ideal, because I liked baking.”

Her mother was a friend of Kathleen Barrett (mother of Gerry), who ran a successful wedding cake business on Abbeygate Street. When she was 14, Eileen’s family moved into the city centre, across the road from Mrs Barrett, and the young teenager had a new lease of life.

“Coming in from the country was the greatest experience, we were near everything – and everything was so safe then, we walked to Seapoint and walked home,” Eileen says.

More significantly though, Eileen began training with Mrs Barrett. But, by the tender age of 16, the latter advised her to travel further afield.

So, Eileen moved to Skerries where she trained to be a confectioner. In those days, she needed to have five years of experience under her belt to be considered qualified.

But, once that period was over, she came home to Galway, and got a job in Silke’s Bakery in ‘The West’ area of the city.

One of the biggest businesses of their kind at the time, they had many products, and Eileen spent seven years learning every aspect of the trade. She then moved to Griffin’s Bakery, where she worked until shortly after getting married to Sean Shiels in 1970.

A Cavan man, working as a bricklayer on the Great Southern Hotel, they met at a dance in Seapoint Ballroom in August 1969. They were engaged by Christmas, and married the following July.

Seven children followed – Carolyn, Finola, Ronan, Shane, Aoife, Grainne, Rory – but Eileen never gave up on her dream.

“I’ve always baked, every Saturday morning I made bread and tarts for the weekend… Rory was just six when I started up (the business),” Eileen says.

“Sean said I was always talking about it, and then Lydon’s closed in Westside, and I went looking for a grant. But the attitude of the bank was: ‘bakeries are two a penny – open today and closed tomorrow’. I had been looking for €10,000, and then Údaras Na Gaeltachta gave me €5,000, and they suggested the name.”

In her converted garage, Eileen started up Bacús Bearna in 1993, assisted by her daughter, Finola, who gave up her job in Dunnes Stores. Carolyn looked after the younger children while her mother built-up her business. The recipes were her own, crafted over the many years she had spent working in the industry.

Her first customer was Peggy Deacy’s vegetable shop on Cooke’s Corner, from where demand quickly ballooned.

“She was always asking why didn’t I do it, that I could do the scones and apple tarts for them. She was taking about it, but in my head I thought it would never happen.

“But then, didn’t the lady giving them the stuff let them down, and she rang me. She asked would I make scones, tarts, and brown bread, and that she would need it for the following week.”

Another of her first stockists was the butcher, James Davoren, in Shantalla.

“His counter was filled every Saturday – they were flying off the shelves, it was marvellous,” she says.

“Then the phone started going all the time. I would deliver to the shops when I was bringing the kids to school, then I got a van and a driver, my nephew Gerard Murphy, for five or six years.

“There was such demand, we worked morning, noon, and night. And, after all the years, we’ve never changed any of the recipes, and have never cut back on the product. We haven’t touched the prices since 2007, even though everything else has gone up.”

Now firmly-established in shops and supermarkets throughout the city and county, and in parts of Clare and Mayo, Bacús Bearna’s appeal has always been its quality and homemade taste.

Eileen now employs eleven people (including her sons) and has three vans on the road, but corners are never cut – up to 100 boxes of apples have to be peeled every week, the pastry is homemade, and there are still no preservatives used.

Despite the fact that Bacús Bearna already supplies apple tarts, brown soda bread, wheaten bread, raisin bread, fruit loaf, rock buns, queen cakes, spelt bread, carrot cake, rhubarb tarts, and mince pies, the grandmother of six has plans to introduce more products before the end of 2014.

Incidentally, Eileen’s daughter, Finola, has followed in her mother’s footsteps and set up a success story of her own. ‘Manor Hill Home Bakery’ is based in Longford, but has a very wide client base, with stockists in Dublin, Monaghan, Westmeath, and Roscommon.