Following the sudden death of her musician brother, she knew change was necessary. She left her career in the music, media and entertainment industry, choosing instead to honour her passion and life calling. In January of the following year, ‘Stone Mad’ was born, and that which had been seeded early in her childhood and continued ‘behind closed doors’ her entire adult life was given the space to be fully seen.

 

She chose the name Stone Mad as a reference to her lifelong love of crystals (and geology), as well as it being a wordplay referencing both her roots and Irish humor. To be ‘stone mad’ about something means you are very passionate about it, or crazy about it, and clearly, Niamh is stone mad about very many things. Thanks to her life experiences she has garnered an invaluable practical and holistic toolset for nature based modern living, and this is what she shares to this day.

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Niamh was always very clear about what she wanted to do through Stone Mad, and how she wanted to do it. Stone Mad’s inaugural year saw her set up a clinical practice, a wild native herb dispensary (the only one of it's kind in Europe), an indoor sacred space for teaching and group ceremony, and an outdoor nature based hedge school for children. She also launched her SoulFOOD and SkinFOOD product lines, made entirely from wild native medicinal herbs and wild seasonal edibles ingredients that she gathers throughout the year from the mountains around her nest. Through SoulFOOD she merged her love of foraging, sustainability, holistic nutrition, creative cooking (and uncooking), seasonal wild ingredients, and food ceremony. She began to teach classes in raw food, wild cuisine, holistic plant based nutrition, and spiritual nourishment, and offer pop up full sensory wild dining experiences in nature (which she called 'Forage & Feast'). With SkinFOOD, she launched her own hand crafted seasonal line of natural body, skin and hair care essentials, and began teaching classes on wild beauty (making your own natural body products). She regularly wrote for holistic publications and travelled internationally to teach. Her first residential retreat program Filaments of Light™ took place in Spain, and she continued writing and developing her other retreat programs throughout the year.

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The following year, her ALCHEMY line was launched, showcasing her collection of crystallized spagyric herbal formulas, ritual oils and anointing balms, hydrosols, elixirs, essences, and sensory remedies. Her second residential retreat program Elements of BEing™ took place in Ireland. Later that same year, she launched her APOTHECARY line as a platform for native wild medicines, indigenous folk healing, and classes on how to make simple safe herbal remedies. Together with her Ceremony & Ritual offerings, all five areas of Stone Mad became known as the ‘Stone Mad Healing Star’ - her own unique model of wHolistic healing.