Carrick celebrates 50 years
The competition was for a guild event and Phil Coffey, president of Carrick-on-Suir ICA, decided to base the entry around their gala dinner held in October 2010 in celebration of the ICA centenary.
Among the 100 guests were the daughters of deceased members who came to represent their mothers. “They came from Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford, Limerick. One lady came from England and brought her own daughter with her. Once I put the ad in the newspaper, the calls came – ‘Can I come?’ ‘Can I bring another sister?’,” recalls Phil.
“I worked all the previous summer on it, preparing a slideshow of all the trips we’d been on. Back in 1985, when few people were travelling, we were organising these trips. We showed the slideshow during the dinner. Many of the ladies were in their 30s and 40s back in the 1980s and they kept saying ‘Oh, look at how young we were then, how great we looked’.”
Phil herself joined Carrick-on-Suir Guild around the time Ireland entered the EEC in the 1970s. “The Eleanora Gibbon contest was on at the time and the theme was ‘Ireland Into Europe’. The guild was putting together a tableau, including Irish music, dancing and singing. My mother, Maureen O’Neill, a founder member, said we need someone to do an Irish dance. They beat me into an Irish dancing costume I’d worn when I was 17, even though by then I was a mother of a young child.
“At that time, a lot of us in ICA were young married women. I’d been working for the Urban Council but because of the marriage ban I had no choice upon getting married but to leave.”
The 26-member guild celebrates its 50th birthday this year and has recently acquired three new members. More than 20 members will travel to An Grianán this year to celebrate the milestone.
Aside from holding craft workshops and going to shows, about six members have been attending sessions on Mindfulness and on the Roots of Christianity at Brú Na Cruinne House of Cosmology in Carrick-on-Suir.
“You come away feeling you’ve done something,” says mum-of-three Phil. “It has opened our minds to liberate ourselves, to do our own thinking and not to feel guilty about thinking differently.
“One day we went in and we were told we were doing the Trial of Socrates. We were to be judge and jury and decide whether or not to put him to death. We decided not to. Exercises like that open our minds. We wouldn’t have questioned things as much before.”
Two guild members — Vera Walsh and Agatha Murphy — represent ICA on the South Tipperary Sports Partnership. As a result, Carrick-on-Suir ICA ended up playing bocce and polybat (a type of sit-down table tennis) at their Christmas party. “Most of us are beginning to show our age so this is to keep us active and doing exercise without it being too strenuous,” says Phil, 74.
Both Phil and are craft and fellow guild member Kay Maher are arts promoters for South Tipperary ICA Federation. For them, the highlight of 2011 was being involved with the County Museum, Clonmel, for an exhibition which celebrated the South Tipperary Federation. “It ran for three months and the icing on the cake was the reaction of ICA CEO John O’Callaghan. When he saw it, he asked if it could be transported to the museum at An Grianán where it’s currently on display.”
nIta Ryder, a founder member of Douglas ICA and also of Douglas ICA Choir and Douglas Country Markets, died last year and is sadly missed by all her friends. A gentle and unassuming person who worked tirelessly for the country markets, her brown bread was much sought after. She was a very hardworking member of Douglas ICA and served on several committees, holding many offices including president. The guild had recently made a presentation to Ita to acknowledge the contribution she’d made to ICA. Her warm smile will be very much missed by all her friends. May she Rest in Peace.
* Dr Eva Orsmond’s book, The Last Diet, was launched by Health Minister Dr James Reilly earlier this month. Operation Transformation diet and nutrition expert Dr Orsmond will give a talk and cookery demonstration, using recipes from her book, at An Grianán, Termonfeckin, on Feb 22 from 12 noon to 4pm. Tickets (€10) available from An Grianán. Call 041 9822 119.
* In October 2012 a group of people will go on a lace/craft cruise for seven days.
They will sail to the Canary Islands. Itinerary as follows:
Oct 6: Fly to Malaga Spain; Oct 7: Cruising to Madeira; Oct 9: Tenerife; Oct 10: Gran Canaria; Oct 11: Lanzarote; Oct 12: Cruising to Malaga, Spain. Everyone is welcome. For more details, phone Sarah in Barters 021 489 4084.
