View from the Green Room: Dedication - Blánaid MacCann

Costumier Blánaid MacCann was the unanimous choice of the Waterford News & Star Lifetime Achievement Award because Blánaid was a generational talent. She gave a lifetime of service to the arts community all over Ireland. Starting with Banks Tops and Waterford, Blánaid and her friend Cathy Nolan went on to found Nomac before going it alone in Tycor where she built a 70,000 wardrobe of theatre costumes. I can’t imagine what the Tycor fire did to her. It’s what happens when fate plays a part in our lives and we have no control over it.

I loved meeting her. She was creative, imaginative and incredibly supportive. Blánaid was always in the audience and beamed smiles to everyone involved with the show.

She knew everyone and, when you went into her Nomac premises in Tycor, she already knew what you needed. Blánaid could tell how a costume would look, light and anchor period and shared all that knowledge willingly. Her costumes anchored our shows.

Blánaid was born in St. Luke’s Cross in Cork but, as I once said to her, she was really a Blaa behind it all.

God bless you Blánaid McCann, you were one of our own.