My childhood in Cork was the best...

EIMEAR Varian Barry has a secret. It’s not a tightly kept one, but it’s something the Cork-born creator might want to keep under wraps from certain Rebel enthusiasts.

It turns out that our favourite content extraordinaire has been ditching us this summer - to spend her holidays in Kerry.

“I know it’s controversial, but I mainly visit Kerry now because all of my family are here,” she whispers over the phone from her sister’s bedroom.

We’ve chosen to forgive the mum-of-three this time, seeing as she did take a trip to her Friars Walk homeland just a few months ago. At the end of the day, Eimear is a proud Cork city girl, but family always comes first.

“It’s hard to fit the two in to the one trip, so I like to go to Cork on my own and bop in and out of the city and see friends, and then I love bringing the kids to Kerry so they can run around the countryside,” she says.

“I’m so adamant about them experiencing Irish summers. The minute they’re off the plane I’m conditioning them. I want to expose them to every type of Irish experience they can have.”

Eimear is chatting with The Echo about halfway through a two-week long trip home. She mentions how she would love to bring her children, aged four, six, and eight, to Ireland for longer periods of time in the summer but she co-parents with their father Daniel and doesn’t want them to be away from him for too long. But any trip she can take back with them is important to her.

The family lives in Surrey and while Eimear loves raising her kids in the UK, she doesn’t want them to forget their roots.

EXPERIENCING CORK

“I play Raidió na Gaeltachta in the car and we pick spuds from the garden and I bring them to Lennox’s and over the Shakey Bridge when we get to Cork. I always bring them into the English Market as well and stand them by the fish stall. I want them to hear the Cork accent and see how Cork people interact because it’s who they are,” she says.

“I think we take that kind of stuff for granted when we’re growing up but then, when you’re older, you realise how valuable and special being Irish is.

“My childhood in Cork was the best. I love the UK but the rawness of Ireland is what I crave and I want my children to see that.”

Eimear first left Cork 15 years ago, when she was just 21. Since then, she’s lived in New York and Australia, and is located just 40 minutes from London now. However, Cork is still one of her favourite places in the world.

“The city has changed so much since I left. Honestly, Cork surprises me every time I go back. I used to plan so much when I visited but the last few times I’ve been back I just couldn’t be arsed. It’s so much nicer to just walk into town, see who I bump into on the way, and find out for myself what has changed,” Eimear says.

“But I love that the foundation is always there. I know that if I go over to the GPO and close my eyes, I can hear The Echo man calling out. I know the sounds of the market, the ‘Hiya girl, how are ya?’ being shouted across the roads. It’s so comforting. Those are the foundations of my life. I was reared in that environment and I’ve been through so many different environments since, but coming back to that, it’s like my safe zone. I never want that to change.”

Would she ever consider moving back?

“It’s funny because I actually think I become a different person on social media when I’m home. Everyone always tells me I’m glowing and I laugh because I do feel different, but my life is in the UK,” she says.

“I weigh it up sometimes. When I was younger I used to make such split decisions but now I think everything in life serves its purpose. I live in England with my children because I love it and I have to be close to London for work. Never say never, in 30 years I might move back, but not for the moment, I don’t think.”

CHANGES

A lot has gone on since The Echo last checked in with Eimear. She’s single, has hit 101,000 Instagram followers, and has battled through the pandemic like all of us. We avoid dwelling on the latter too much, but she’s open about how tough it was.

“I feel such anger toward that time,” she says. “I don’t think we realised how much was being taken away from us. We knew it was bad, but looking back now, we just have so much to make up.”

She’s also been pulling away from social media more, choosing instead to focus on trying to get back into filmmaking, having studied the subject at St John’s Central College in Cork.

“Film and video is my love. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I actually used to work as an assistant on movie sets in New York,” the former RedFM producer says.

“I think the stuff I put on Instagram is s***. I’d love to actually get back into producing. I definitely want to produce a short or do something down that route.

“I’m also working with four different photography clients every week and writing, which I love.”

Eimear was one of the original Irish content creators, sharing her life with us long before people were making careers out of doing so. It’s an exhausting profession and one that gets a lot of hate (death threats aren’t uncommon).

For Eimear, social media has become a different beast - and it’s not one that she feels motivated to battle for much longer.

“I’ve become something else and it’s become something else,” she says.

“When I started out first, it was so innocent. It was like a blog. Now, I just couldn’t be arsed sharing stuff anymore. I just don’t have it in me. It’s just taken over. And I’m part of the problem, so I’m trying to not document every moment anymore.

“I know that’s easy for me to do because I have followers already but it’s so easy to burn out and I’ve seen that happen. And it’s only going to get worse.”

Is there a plan to move away from it all? In perfect, honest EVB fashion, she admits the answer is no.

“There’s something happening to me right now and I’m not sure what it is. I feel like I’m in a ditch somewhere in the middle of everything. I want to buy a house for me and my kids and I want to work my ass off to do that but I don’t know what’s next. I’m figuring s*** out.

“I don’t know where the wind will take me but I have faith that I’ll always be true to myself. And I hope that inspires other people.”