IRISH Consul, Helene Fallon-Wood, grew up as the only black kid in a small fishing village in Greystones in County Wicklow, on the coast of Ireland.

Her father was Nigerian and her mother was Irish although she never knew either of them, and Helene was adopted into a very close family along with six other children.

“It was an interesting being the only black kid in town,” she said.

“But I had a great time with all my brothers and sisters.

“It was good fun.”

But her unusual upbringing has not slowed her in the slightest.

Helene and her husband, Peter, moved to Phuket 20 years ago, and she is now the managing director of Tamarind Villas as well as the Honorary Consul for Ireland.

She is a compulsive worker and she hates being idle.

After leaving school in Greystones, she moved to Dublin where she worked as a temp in an office which had a large glass window and, being black, she stood out from the rest of the girls in the office.

She was spotted by a passing TV producer who was making a television advertisement for Canada Dry and he invited to be a Mardi Gras dancer in the ad.

“It was the middle of October on a cold Irish day, and there I was in nothing but a small diamante bikini,” said Helene.

The ad went on to win a BAFTA award for Best Advertisement, and the director, Michael Colbert offered Helene a full-time job as his assistant.

She became a member of Equity and moved from performing into production, and from commercials to movies, working on The Commitment.

She also set up the first Home Shopping Channel in the UK, “I learned to be as tough as everyone else in the movie business, and it has helped me throughout my life,” she said.

Her husband was taught to dive by a Norwegian instructor who lived in Thailand, and when Peter completed the course, he was invited to come and work in Phuket.

After only a month in Phuket, he went home and told Hélène they were coming here to live.
“I had to get the atlas out and see where it was. I’d never heard of Phuket,” said Helene.

“I’d only ever been to Tenerife before.”

They moved to the island and stayed for a couple of years, but when the US invaded Iraq, neither of them were working, and they returned to Ireland.

“We moved back in December, and it was definitely the wrong time of the year to move to Ireland,” said Helene.

“It was really cold, and by the middle of February we were back on Phuket.

“All our stuff was still in transit on its way to Ireland.”

When they returned to island life, they lived on a boat, which Helene hated.

“It was much too remote for me,” she said.

“I like to be around people and close to my telephone and a computer.

“We looked for a house but couldn’t find one so we bought a piece of land and built our
own house.

“My husband’s family were builders, so we knew what to do.

“When that house was finished, we built another one, and Tamarind Villas are out third project.”

Helene was appointed the Honorary Irish Consul for Phuket, and she says she thoroughly enjoys it.

“I particularly like helping people who need it,” she said.

“It is important to me to know that whatever happens to an Irish citizen on Phuket, I can help.

“If it was me in trouble, I know I’d want someone to help me.

“ I always say ‘yes’ before I say ‘no’.”

Helene doesn’t mind getting out of bed at 2am if she gets a call from someone who has lost their passport.

“I would want someone to do the same for me,” she said.

Hélène is extremely good at her job as Consul, and she took on the task of helping the Irish people who were caught up in the tsunami.

She did everything from helping families identify bodies to distributing aid funds. Her area of responsibility covers the whole of the south of Thailand.

“You have to be a certain type of person to do this job,” she said.

“Whether I am informing a family about the death of a loved one, or standing in the ICU unit in a hospital, I have to be able to function effectively and with empathy without getting too involved.

“Sometimes that can be very difficult, but it has to be done.”

Helene said she was proud to be able to do something for her country.

“It is a privilege to hold this position and I want to do the very best I can,” she said.

Helene is also the community relations officer and chief fund-raiser for the Life Home project, a charity which looks after mothers and children suffering from HIV or AIDS.

The project is behind a purpose built village on 4.5 rai of land on Koh Surai, which has helped many women and children.

Hélène said she will be working very hard, at least for the foreseeable future.

She has other projects that she wants to do, but running the Consul is her first priority.

For further information, call Helene on 076 281 084, or email he at:irelandconsulate.phuket@gmail.com.

The Irish Consulate is in Tamarind Valley, in Soi Suksan in Rawai. Hours are from 9am until noon, Monday to Friday.