Love is in the air as Knockraha craft event puts smiles on faces
The competition was to create a piece in any medium that would capture the essence of love. There were four prize winners on the night. First prize went to Margaret Mason of the host guild. Margaret “really went all out”, says Cork Federation competition secretary Nuala Stack.
“She made an amazing table arrangement — two feet tall by one and a half foot wide. Boy, did it encompass love! It had the wow factor. Mostly red, there was a lantern with a gorgeous perfumed night light, balloons, red camellias, pieces of Kilmarnock Willow, bits of greenery, a heart, a framed picture of roses done in cross stitch and a knitted robin peeping out from the base of it. She obviously still loves her Michael! You couldn’t but give it a prize.”
Two ladies took joint second prize. Joan Moloney from Carraig Na bhFear Guild recited a monologue about Peg and Mick, who are not in the first flush of youth and who take a walk in the park one day. The final four lines are ‘Don’t ever let age diminish your cause/ it’s a song that has yet to be sung/ let love and romance be part of your life/ they are not just the gift of the young’.
Eileen Kenneally from Shanagarry Guild was the other second prize winner. “She presented an arrangement of flowers surrounded by a bottle of red wine, a glass of red wine and a pair of seriously sexy high-heeled shoes. One of the shoes had roses in it. The other was lying sideways with the glass of wine beside it. Just look at it and it told the story of seduction,” says Nuala.
Meanwhile, Mary Garde, also from Shanagarry, took third prize. Inside an up-cycled glass fish bowl, she had placed a jam jar filled with a bunch of gold-tipped deep red roses. “These were surrounded by garden greenery in a heart-shaped pattern.”
Nuala presented the winners with rabbits made out of up-cycled face cloths – they each contained Easter eggs. “Because of the night that was in it — Ash Wednesday — and for the craic,” she says in explanation of her choice of prize.
In total, four competitions are held at federation meetings each year. The next meeting is the AGM, to be held in Gaggin Hall, on Sunday, April 26. The competition is for a knitted hat for a child under 12 months. At the AGM, all points will be added up from competitions held through the year — there will be first, second and third prize winners.
