ICA news: Ballinspittle members enjoy series of unlikely events

Ballinspittle ICA Guild’s commitment to helping out their community has seen them involved in some rather unusual events.

Having helped fundraise for restoration of the signal tower at the Old Head of Kinsale, they went a step further on two recent bank holiday weekends.

“As a fundraiser for the restoration, they do bus drives out to the Old Head. ICA members help to cater for groups out there, bringing baking and scones and serving tea,” says Ballinspittle Guild secretary Bernie Hannon.

The guild, which celebrates its 60th birthday next year, also helped out on many fronts when the Céilí mission group visited the parish last November.

“Some members kept them in their homes. Others drove them around. And during the second week of their stay, some members brought them lunch and dinner in the hall.”

Given this track record, the guild hosted Cork Federation’s summer meeting in the community hall earlier this summer.

With 23 members, Ballinspittle Guild members’ interests range from craft, painting and singing to gardening, cooking and exercise. This year, they had a macramé class with Nuala Stack and functional exercise with the aid of the Go for Life grant.

Many members enjoy walking on beaches and 2015 saw them filling shoeboxes for the Hope Shoebox appeal. Their main fundraisers each year are a flower arrangement evening with Eileen O’Brien from Kinsale. Willie Grainger, who has a gardening centre, does a night every May.

Bernie, a guild member since 1979 when she joined with her late neighbour, Chrissie Collins, has been in ICA since she was a teenager growing up in Barryroe.

“There was a lot going on in our local hall and it involved ICA. I remember Domestic Economy classes, where you learned things like how to truss a turkey.”

Bernie recalls feeling very shy at her first ICA meetings. “They had a thing going, where everyone had to explain a handy hint – like how you’d get queen cakes to rise. I remember being so bothered about having to talk at all, never mind giving a handy hint.”

A pitch and putt player, Bernie’s looking forward to a week in An Grianán, which begins this Monday. She and fellow Ballinspittle member Anne Bowen are regulars.

Aside from playing pitch and putt, Bernie is also planning to attend craft classes held there next week by Eleanor Calnan.