ICA news: Spirit of co-operation drives Glin guild to great heights
“People volunteer for any little jobs — there’s no twisting of arms,” says Eilís McNamara, newly-elected Limerick Federation PRO and a Glin Guild member.
Eilis cites the whist drives, which the guild has run on Tuesdays since 1985 and which attract card-players, not just from Glin, but from places like Tarbert in Kerry, Loughill along the Shannon Estuary and Foynes.
“We run them weekly from October to June. We need an MC each evening and two hostesses — members do it on a rota basis. We also hold one whist drive a month in June, July and August. For this, we don’t have a rota — we look for volunteers and people are so willing. They just say ‘I’ll do it’ — we very quickly got nine people on board for this summer. That’s what I mean when I talk about cooperation.”
The guild holds a Go for Life walk every Wednesday evening. Walkers meet at the square in Glin at 7.30pm — non-ICA members are welcome to join. They do the Knight’s Walk, a two-hour uphill trek that goes through the lands of Glin Castle. “At the top, you can see three counties — Clare, Kerry and Limerick.”
Glin Guild was set up in 1971. Eilis is a founder member. She’s from Elphin, Roscommon, and she qualified as a poultry instructor in 1962 before getting a job at Gurteen Agricultural College in Tipperary, where she met her husband, Glin man Martin McNamara — he had been appointed to teach general agriculture there.
“I was one of those women who had to give up her job because of the marriage ban — that was in 1966. It was loneliness really that made me feel we needed some sort of women’s group in the area.”
Eilís says ICA has been good to her. When her husband died four years ago, ICA was very supportive.
“That social support, friendship and networking was certainly there both from by own guild and others in the county. members were there looking after me.”
It’s for this reason that she was glad to accept the PRO role within the federation. “I’d do anything to help.”
Glin ICA meets the second Friday of the month in Cloverfield Day Centre at 7.30pm. It will re-open in September.
