ICA news: Wonderful memories recalled on long service awards night
National president Liz Wall and national secretary Shirley Power attended the celebration lunch in the Talbot Hotel, Wexford Town, where over 100 of the women receiving certs had given 35+ years to the Association.
The certs honoured membership ranges from 15 years to 65 and — said Wexford Federation PRO Joe Keane — represented 8,025 cumulative years of service.
One member — 83-year-old Gertie Rath from Oulart Guild — has been in ICA 65 years. A former federation president (1990-93), she is said to have enjoyed the buzz of that role.
She joined Boolavogue Guild as a teenager and was in Monamolin Guild before it closed. She has been an Oulart member for many years.
Five women were celebrating 60 years — 103-year-old Mary Nola, Bunclody Guild; Betty McHug, Killinick Guild; Josie Spratt, Bree Guild, where ICA was founded; Kathleen Pierce and Peg Kavanagh, both of Inch Guild.
Now aged 90, Kathleen Pierce joined ICA in 1954. “In 1943, I’d trained for the post office and as a telephonist in Celbridge. I moved to Kilcock in Co Kildare, where I stayed for six years.
Then I moved to Tinahely in Wexford – I thought ‘oh my God! What have I done? I’m in the middle of nowhere. In Kilcock you could get the bus to the city and go to a film. I stayed for three years and then I met my husband, Michael.”
Kathleen’s father-in-law bought the young couple a post office and shop in Inch. The local rector’s wife, Signa Lloyd was a great ICA member and president of Inch Guild. “She said ‘when you move in, you’ll join’ and I did.
Meetings were in the Church of Ireland schoolhouse just across the road from us. In 1954 there were few cars so members came on bikes.
I wouldn’t have met anybody [if it wasn’t for ICA] unless they came to the shop. But when you closed the shop you were on your own. You had to be in something. In Kilcock I was used to being able to go to the cinema and being back home in an hour.”
Peg Kavanagh was 16 when she joined Inch Guild. “My cousins who were older than me and who lived nearby were members.
We’d cycle up to the local school in Inch, three miles away for meetings at 7.30am. One of my neighbours joined then — she had a van and in the winter we’d go with her. I had seven brothers and three sisters and it was great to get out.
“My mother-in-law, Kathleen Kavanagh, was very involved. So was her daughter, Ann. Kathleen had great hands and she’d show members how to crochet. We’d often go up to the house after meetings and have a chat.”
