Judy Hopkins: ‘Giving was my mum’s superpower’

When my mum, Mary Hopkins, founded Hopkins Communications in Cork in 1990, she did so at a time when very few women were leading in Irish or Cork businesses, let alone in communications or with PR agencies.

She became a trailblazer not by declaration, but by example, building one of Munster’s most respected independent agencies through instinct, integrity, and an unwavering belief in people.

Six months after her passing, I still catch myself reaching for the phone. To tell her something funny. To ask her advice. To hear her laugh, a laugh that could fill a room before she even entered it, so contagious that we would often find ourselves laughing uncontrollably, with and at each other, for far longer than we should have.

She was many things to many people, a founder, a leader, a mentor, a force of nature, but to me she was first and always my best friend, as well as my mum.

As International Women’s Day approached, and with this year’s theme #GiveToGain, I found myself thinking about what giving really looked like in her life. Because for mum, giving was never strategic or performative. It was instinctive.

She gave opportunities quietly. She opened doors for women before they knew they were allowed to knock. She gave her time to young graduates finding their feet, to business owners who needed reassurance, to anyone who rang her looking for guidance.

She had an extraordinary ability to see potential in people long before they saw it in themselves, and she never hesitated to back them.

Her generosity extended far beyond business. One of the causes closest to her heart for 30-plus years was SHARE - Students Harness Aid for the Relief of the Elderly. As a family, we spent many Christmas Days delivering dinners, hampers and presents to centres across Cork.

What mattered most to her were the conversations. Knowing the residents by name. Sitting down. Listening. Showing up. She built deep, genuine relationships with the people there and with Brother Stephen, who led the annual fundraising project. She put her heart and soul into that work, valuing people, not just causes.

When she retired in 2017, she didn’t necessarily slow down. She redirected her energy. Combining her love of the sea with her natural instinct for bringing people together, she became even more deeply involved in fundraising for RNLI Baltimore. She used every bit of her PR and events expertise to help build sell-out suppers and other events year after year, securing tens of thousands of euro in donations and prizes.

The final event she worked on took place just two days before she passed away. Unable to attend, she sent my dad in her place. That night, she was mentioned from the stage, cheered and thanked. Chef Derry Clarke also took the time to ring her to say how much she was missed. Even in her absence, she filled the room.

She also showed up in leadership. She was president of Network Cork and the Publicity Club, a driving force within Cork Chamber, and one of the first two women to attend the Chamber annual dinner among a sea of ‘penguins’ (tuxedos)! She walked into that room with elegance, confidence, and a smile that had, as one Cork publican recently told me, “the businessmen of Cork eating out of the palm of her hand”.

She was the first female president of the Rotary Club of Cork, and the ‘Yellow Ribbon Tree of Remembrance’ on Patrick Street, which still stands each Christmas, was her idea.

But above all, she showed up for her family.

She was proud of her son Mark, and of the business she entrusted to him and to me. She loved his wife Eorann dearly and was deeply grateful for her two grandchildren, Jack and Anna, who brought her pure joy and mischief and who knew they were utterly loved by their Granny.

Her love for my dad, Dave, her husband of almost 51 years, was steady, playful and enduring, shaped by oceans crossed and storms weathered together.

And her loving bond with her twin sister Norma was life-long and profound. They were different in temperament, but united in loyalty and an unspoken understanding that only twins truly know.

Since she passed, messages have arrived from Cork to Australia, from Sherkin to Singapore. The words repeat themselves. Trailblazer. A light. Generous. Glamorous. Fun. Fearless. Kind.

At her funeral, alongside the attendance of the Taoiseach’s Aide-de-Camp, she was honoured with a standing ovation, a moment that spoke not just of respect, but of love.

Mum made the most of life. She gave endlessly of herself, and in doing so multiplied confidence, opportunity and joy for countless others.

Her legacy lives on in us, her family, and in the people she lifted, the causes she championed, and the business she built.

Giving was Mum’s superpower. And we are all richer for it. We miss her every day, and we are lucky knowing that her presence still fills the room. Even if she is not physically with us, she lives on in all of us, guiding us as we step into the next chapter of the business she built — a chapter she was still helping to refine, right until the very end.