Irish fashion boss tells how he discovered Caitríona Balfe packing bags in Dunnes

They were all, at one point, part of Assets Model Agency. The man who found them, Derek Daniels, is celebrating 30 years of Assets, and looking back at the many lives he helped change.

“I remember interviewing our very first ever model when she came in. It was Emer O’Reilly-Hyland, who went on to become the editor of VIP magazine,” he tells Magazine+.

The second was actor Frank Kelly’s daughter, Ruth. “After that, the numbers get a bit fuzzy,” he adds with a laugh.

For Derek, it was no mistake that he wound up in the fashion business.

“I knew when I was about 11 years of age, what I was interested in was the production of fashion events and I was always mystified by models and all the rest of it and I always had a great interest in it, so when it came about later in life, it never surprised me,” he remembers.

It’s fitting, then, that he has always had a very keen eye for what will work in the fashion world and beyond. It’s that finely tuned sense that has allowed him to discover many that we now consider household names, both at home and abroad.

“The people I’ve met, the people I’ve worked with… they’re all only ordinary people, who knows what they’ll be later in life?

"All you’re doing is helping them pay their way through college or whatever it is they’re doing.

"Like, Caitríona Balfe is a prime example. I mean, she was packing bags on a till next to me in Dunnes in Rathmines, she was a drama student at the time,” he says.

“When I approached her about modelling, she looked at me like I was mad.

"She went on to be the biggest Irish export as a model ever, ever, ever. I mean, Dolce and Gabbana’s muse for six years, worked all over the world, and then of course, she’s a big actress.

"She had no interest in modelling, and didn’t consider herself suitable to be a model. “But it was a pure fluke that I went into Dunnes Stores to do my shopping that day. And that’s how I found her,” he explains.

Colin Farrell, too, has Derek to thank for helping his face become one everyone knows nowadays. “Colin was only a young fella and I had him in a dance group. In the same dance group at the time was Stephen Gately, who went on to be in Boyzone and Cecilia Ahern, the (former) Taoiseach’s daughter,” Derek says. They went on to be actors, singers and authors, but have a shared history thanks to the ‘face finder’.

As Derek considers three decades of success, it’s clear he’s not calling time just yet.

“I achieved everything I wanted to achieve and continue to have that hunger for it. I’m fortunate that I can count on a lot of them still as friends of mine, and indeed many of them have their own children at Assets now. That’s the biggest compliment you can get, when people will come back to you with their own kids because they trust you and know you’ll help make things become a reality for them,” he smiles.