Lily drives South Tipp to greater heights
“Killenaule always had about 30 members, now we’re down to 15. We have only ever lost members to death,” says mother of one Lily, whose sister, Stasia, was persuaded by a friend, Sheila Connolly, to revive Killenaule Guild in 1952. An earlier guild had closed in the late 1940s. The last surviving founder member, Ina O’Dwyer, is in her 90s now, and has contributed much to ICA through the years.
“We had a get-together about re-forming the guild upstairs over our drapery shop, in a room where my sister used to do dress-making. My mother joined, and she made my younger sister, Margaret, join too. All the daughters were roped in. It was the only social outing we had in the evenings. I remember doing a millinery class and learning to make a hat. We had public-speaking and debates. A good few members were teachers. There were farmers’ wives, the bank manager’s wife, a hotel owner.”
