THE BIG READ: Offaly woman thrives as a well-known influencer and style guru

She's a camera shy mother of five but Rachel Gorry has nonetheless scaled the dizzying heights of the influencer business thanks to her keen fashion eye and heartwarming personality.

And her origin story is something to behold - Rachel and her late husband Daniel were just 12 when they met.

A native of Clondalkin, Dublin, her parents decided to move down the country and chose to reside in Walsh Island in Co Offaly, as rural an area as one could possibly find.

Was the young pre-teen Rachel fearful at all? “Just a little bit, talk about a culture shock! I was devastated leaving my friends, I was just traumatised,” she says.

But as she states herself, “kids adapt” and pretty soon she was settling into secondary school in Colaiste Iosagain in Portarlington.

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Around the same time, her father answered the door one day to a youngster called Daniel Gorry who lived in the neighbourhood.

“Daniel knocked on the door and he said is your daughter coming out to play. I went out and we played a game of 40-40 and then we spent every day together.”

They were in the same class in school and as time went on Rachel knew she had feelings. But Daniel had not asked her out.

“He finally plucked up the courage when we were 16 to ask the question,” she laughs.

Marriage and three children, Leah, Holly and Hannah, followed but tragedy struck when Daniel was just 27.

A healthy non-smoker, he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and sadly, it was terminal. “It was an old man's cancer and it was very unusual that he got it. He was young when he got it so it spread.”

Daniel passed away at just 29. The couple's three girls were just nine, five and three at the time.

Rachel and Daniel had sold a house and went on holidays before beginning a new build. It was at that time Daniel got sick.

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Rachel had been working in Noelle Interiors (the local business run by Noelle O'Donoghue) and her eye for style was being noticed by many people, among them a local auctioneer, the late Kate O'Shea.

“Kate loved my interiors. When Daniel got sick I left Noelle's and he said why don't I set up an interiors Instagram page. And the page took off.”

The page got the attention of an agency and Rachel was signed up, a move which gave her the stability her young family needed at such a difficult juncture in their lives.

“It was a great relief to Daniel to know that I was going to be ok. And I was very grateful for the agency.”

Though Rachel has been hugely successful at bringing brands to her audience through her Instagram page she admits that to this day she is uncomfortable being the face of the products: “This is my worst nightmare, posing in front of a camera.”

That explains why she was “absolutely rattling” with nerves when she made an appearance as a guest of Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show to talk about oesophageal cancer.

It was after Daniel had died and came when the traditional live format of The Late Late Show was temporarily suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even so, Rachel recalls being terrified of the recording.

“Live TV would scare the life of me. I absolutely wasn't going to do it but I was talked into it.”

The appearance has helped raise massive amounts of money for the Oesophageal Cancer Fund and the Friends of Tullamore Hospital and Rachel also undertook a skydive for the cause.

As her career as an influencer blossomed Rachel eventually found new love, and as fate would have it, once again it was almost on her own doorstep.

A man seven years older than her, Adrien Kiernan, would frequent her local pub, Hopper's in Walsh Island village.

“I knew of him, he's local and I just knew him to say hello to. And then I met him and I said, 'I like him'.”

In August last year Rachel and Adrien announced the arrival of twin babies, Ryan and Evie. Now a mother of five, Rachel posted on social media: “Our two tiny miracles decided to make their entrance into the world this morning and are doing so well. We’re completely and utterly in love with them.”

As if five children wasn't enough, Rachel still finds time to nurture her business and late last year launched her own line of Lynott Jewellery.

“It's my collection. I sat down and designed 28 pieces with the jewellery team. I was anxious, I always doubt myself. But I designed for myself, what I'd like, and I'm delighted with the reaction.”

The Rachel Gorry Collection is on sale in Brown Thomas stores in Dublin and Cork. So will she be moving back to her city of birth?

“No. I wouldn't change it now. I love the quietness, I love the country life, I love where I live, the quiet slow pace.”