Hard working Ukrainian lady has made Tipperary her home

Alla Dediuk: It took Alla and her husband, Andriy, quite a few years to fully settle in Ireland but they just kept on living and things just happened in the endOn the floor of all the rooms in her parents’ big house, a young Alla spread out her drawings. There was no prior knowledge, no repetition of ideas, no instruction. There was just her endless passion and the moment it all clicked. 
From the age of 10, 11, Alla wasn’t satisfied unless she was making something.
“I just was very passionate about dresses and jackets, and then the same with knitting...Then I made curtains for the windows”.
Fabric or wool were the best presents for her on birthdays. People started bringing her their jeans and dresses, to shorten or to loosen. She did any jobs that came her way. Eventually, people started paying her.  As she lay in bed at night, she counted the skirts she could make in a week or how much she’d need to save for a knitting machine.
Making clothes was her happy place. So was baking.
“If my mother did shopping and she brought home eggs, cream, milk, I used them. She didn’t have a chance to make food. I used them for cake!”
She baked for neighbours, for weddings and for birthdays. She experimented and she created, trying to make something perfect. She stopped with the clothesmaking when she moved here - the clothes here are so much cheaper to buy than in Ukraine and she didn’t have the time with everything else going on. However, her passion for baking never died down.
Alla studied genetics in an agricultural university, where she met her husband, Andriy, who did the same course but was a few years ahead of her. He had friends that moved to Ireland first and decided to join them. When he moved to Clonmore Farm, Fethard, for work experience, he thought it was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about farming as well as to get a better grasp on the English language.
“He didn’t plan to live here, but it was very interesting to work in Clonmore because it is a famous farm. We learn about it in agricultural university.” When they got married, Alla moved to Ireland, thinking it would be only for a while.
She missed Ukraine for the first 5, 6, 7 years. They had children - two boys, but they couldn’t decide whether to go back to Ukraine or not. Even after their children started school, they were still deciding. However, when they went home to visit parents and family, it felt just like that: they were only visiting. It didn’t feel like home. In the end, Alla doesn’t feel like either of them ever made a decision. They just kept living and living. Things just happened.
Alla worked as a housewife for around seven years after her children were born. She stayed at home, cooked food, and brought the children to school.
“I am happy I could give that time to my children when they were small. Now they are big, and I think they’re okay.”
However, it was hard and not being able to create was something very stressful for her. “I was very tired” Time went by, and eventually she started to enrol in courses, which helped boost her confidence. Wanting to make something bigger, she started working on her business at night.
Her first job was at a local café, Angela’s, and the owner there was very kind. She liked it more when she was working and found herself growing happier. It wasn’t easy at the start - her English wasn’t great. She helped the lead pastry chef and did the washing up. The pastry chef was also from another country, and when she went back home, she asked Alla to make pastries. Alla was ecstatic at the offer. From then on, she knew what she wanted - to open a patisserie of her own.  
Alla baked at home. She baked so much that her family couldn’t eat it all! Some of her friends bought her cakes, paying for ingredients. It was a great experience for her. Alla was never satisfied with her results, always looking for that perfect cake. Cake after delicious cake didn’t meet her high standard - it was too sweet, it had too much buttercream, too much sugar. She practiced and practiced, trying to find something that hit the spot perfectly.  “I wanted something different”. But it was hard to achieve the quality she wanted without a proper place to bake. 
One year was particularly hard. When she went back to Ukraine on holidays, she thought she would never come back to Ireland again. “I was very serious. I was looking at schools in Ukraine for my children”.
In her country, everything was easier to understand. Her late grandfather was an important accountant who knew all the businesses in the town, and after his death, she got plenty of offers to help. People knew people who could give her a shop, who could help her with accounts, who could help her with anything she needed. A lot of her classmates from courses she had done back in Ukraine had already opened their own business because it was so much easier doing everything in Ukraine. She was happy for them but frustrated about her own business and she told her husband she would not come back to Ireland.
The impact of the Chernobyl disaster was a massive factor in their decision to move back to Ireland. In Ukraine, they lived in Chernigov, a region just 60km from Chernobyl. Both Alla’s mother and her husband encouraged her to move back to Ireland for her children’s safety. Plus, Andriy liked his life in Ireland. He thought it was a fantastic opportunity for the whole family. “He said he would help me... and I should go back with him and we would make it together.”. Allah was tired and frustrated, not believing she could make her business work, but she decided to move back to Ireland and keep going, though even “with (Andriy’s) help, it was very difficult”. 

One day, one of Alla’s regular customers, whom she met on Facebook, gave her a text. The building next to the customer had been bought, and it was suitable to be turned into her patisserie!
One thing led to another, and soon she was meeting with the owner. They spoke about it and made a deal. She was ecstatic with the outcome. He was an extremely nice person and helped her so much. She’s ever-grateful for his belief in her.
It wasn’t easy. It still isn’t easy for her, but it’s easier now that she understands a lot more. She’s been working here in Fethard for over two years, but she still doesn’t feel like she’s using all her skills - it’s hard to in such a small population. Sometimes she can’t make what she wants, because she doesn’t have the sales to support it.
“I understand I need something bigger, something different.”
So she’s applied for another shop in Clonmel. It’s easier for her to go through all the planning steps now that she knows more people who can help. Times were tough, but she’s happy.
Alla is full of praise for her customers. ”I always say “my customers are royalty!”  If something goes wrong, her customers are patient. For example, when her card machine broke and a lot of the customers couldn’t pay for their food, every single one of them paid her back.
“When I ask for help, my customers help me. I am lucky... I know everything about them! Their families, about children.” She’s often too busy to meet with friends from Ukraine or from courses, and those friends too are busy with businesses and family, so her customers are an important part of her social life. 
It’s hard work, definitely, but Alla is beyond happy everyday to be able to do what she loves for a living. It’s something that she wishes upon everyone. “There are not many people who like their job and it’s very sad because they lost part of life”. It’s not always easy, even if you do something you like everyday, but it still makes a massive difference in every part of your life.
“Tomorrow, you forget what happened yesterday. But if you don’t like your job, you’re unhappy everyday.”
She’s extremely grateful for her bakery, and thinks it sets a brilliant example for her sons, aged 10 and 13. When not in school, they spend a lot of time with her.
Alla and her kids often have “All day together, every day together, which is nice”. The kids help out in the bakery and play in the flat upstairs. “I don’t tell them to help. I just say “this moment, it’s good for us all if you help.” And they understand”. They are fantastic workers who really understand teamwork, and she hopes this will help them in whatever they choose in life. ”That’s important, I would like them to do something that they like… I don’t mind what happens to my business when I retire.” They see how happy she is in what she does, and she hopes that they achieve the same for themselves. ”I go home sometimes; I say "I’m tired". And they say "you do what you like! You just do what you like!"” 
Her passion and energy, she inherited from her late mother, one of the greatest vets in the country. Alla’s mother undertook classes in Kiev Agricultural University to learn about all the latest treatments. Because of the Chernobyl disaster, a lot of people in the region had cancer. Her mother’s sisters had cancer, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer too, which she had for ten years: first in her breast, then it spread to her lungs. By the time she found out she had lung cancer, it was already in the fourth stage. She was told she had three months left to live. But she lived four years!
Alla’s mother was determined to survive as long as possible. She researched everything that could possibly help and she used epigenetics. All this time, while she was struggling with cancer, she kept working because she loved what she was doing. Her family wanted her to stay at home, in case she wore herself out, but up to the day she died, she continued working, though near the end it was only one day a week. She was an amazing vet, and a wonderful mother, even to the end. 
Alla definitely carried on her mother’s great work ethic and passion. “I don't know how and where I get energy but sometimes, I’m just working non-stop and some days I just cannot sit, I cannot talk on my phone.”
Bursting with ideas, all she knows is her desire to create new cakes, new pastries, new fillings. When she has a new idea, she can’t last long without working on it. She arrives early in the morning, and works, works, works, until suddenly the day is finished, and she still doesn’t have the time to do all that she wants.
She’s very lucky to have help nowadays, because that way she has someone to work on the more popular cakes while she tries something new. Her favourite cakes are the ones with arty processes, such as cheesecakes, and her favourite process is the decorating.
Alla is still the same passionate girl, undoubtedly. She’s one of the most hardworking people you will ever meet, and a true artist. She is friendly and polite and it was a delight getting to know her. She’s looking forward to meeting everyone in Clonmel in her business!
On the counter of her beautiful patisserie, Alla spreads out her ingredients. She is guided by her endless passion and searching for the moment that it all clicks. Having learned from the knowledge of some of the best chefs in the world now, she is using that knowledge to craft something entirely new, something beautiful. 

Saoirse McInerney

Saoirse McInerney is a young woman who hails from Birdhill in north Tipperary. She has enjoyed writing for as long as she can remember, creating short stories, speeches, and poetry, as well as plays for her school drama. Saoirse recently started working with a ghostwriting company, which she really enjoys as she believes everyone's story is worth telling.

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