About Mary Kate

Tea with Mary Kate is currently an enthusiatic amateur’s passion to further explore the world of tea, though at its heart is a more fundamental desire to provide the inspiration to connect with each other in a meaningful way that most days we are simply too rushed to do. The ceremony of tea represents an opportunity to pause, to breathe, to admire the aesthetic that evokes a way of living that is gentle and respectful, nurturing the mind, body & spirit.

Mary Kate is the central character in the film “The Quiet Man”. Although she is surrounded by the harsh reality of being poor & Irish, there is a kindness, a childlike joy and innocence with her appreciation of life and living. When she is alone with her new suitor, Sean Thornton, she takes off her stockings without thinking. He turns to protect her modesty and by then, her acute embarrassment, but already she has formed a trust and connection with him that is beyond words. Who knows how this happens but those of us who are lucky enough to have experienced it recognise this moment. She runs across the green, green Irish countryside with gay abandon, a letting go of formality, an honesty and expression of herself.

Beautiful things are important to Mary Kate, not for their intrinsic value, but for the connection to what they represent “300 years of happy dreaming”. It is this that is at the heart of the inspiration for tea with Mary Kate – to savour the aesthetic, to take time to connect with ourselves, and to feel the healing of body, mind and soul, through shared events & the memories they give us, that can be evoked by, as Mary Kate says “things that are my own”. My hope for Tea with Mary Kate is that it is a signpost to get us there.

In the film, Mary Kate is played by the amazingly beautiful Maureen O’Hara.