Wexford students have set up the first ever school-based Irish Countrywomen’s Association guild
THE Irish Countrywomen’s Association — set up over 100 years ago and largely populated through the decades by women from rural homes looking for a social get-out; an organisation where women dedicated themselves to baking cakes and making tea cosies, to flower demos, craft displays, and catering at parish functions.
Now, a pioneering bunch of Co Wexford schoolgirls is making history by setting up the first ever school-based ICA guild.
Transition year pupils Hannah Dodd, Shauna Boyne, and Áine Maher, and fifth-years Zara McGuire, Molly Kavanagh, and Cassie Murphy call their guild the Bridgetown Flowers.
Shauna Boyne, 16, is treasurer of the new guild. She heard her teacher, Mary Fitzgerald — a former Wexford ICA Federation secretary — talking about the organisation to a classmate.
“I wanted to know more about it — just the fact that there was a night every month when loads of women she [Mary] didn’t really know got together and they got to know each other.”
Ms Fitzgerald knew the girls had seen her ICA exploits reported in the local newspaper. But it still came out of the blue when Shauna asked one day in religion class if an ICA guild could be started in Bridgetown College. “I didn’t see why not. But I pushed it back on her. I said ‘you find five or six other girls and we’ll have a meeting’. She did — the first meeting was in October.”
The Bridgetown Flowers launched officially in January. Wexford Federation president Deirdre Connery attended and the girls got their ICA badges. “We felt really official, like we’re official members,” says Shauna. They wear their badges every day in school.
This, says Ms Fitzgerald, shows their independent minds.
Bridgetown College is a co-ed school with almost 600 pupils and many ask about the ICA badges.
The expectation is that when the new ICA year begins in May, more girls will join. Rachel Reid, a TY student who loves camogie, football, gym, and swimming, and whose favourite subject is biology, is all set to join after Easter.
Hannah Dodd is president of the Bridgetown Flowers. Her granny, Rita Tierney, was an ICA member. “Her brown bread was the best at one time,” says Hannah — and she’s delighted her granddaughter has joined up. “I thought it was a good idea to set up something as friends together. There isn’t that much to do in school if you aren’t into sports.”
The fledgling guild meets twice a month at lunchtime in the school’s English classroom.
At the last meeting, the girls discussed who was making which cakes — rocky road, chocolate biscuit cake, rainbow cupcakes — for a bake sale fundraiser for their 2016-17 ICA subscriptions.
They talked about entering the Special Occasions competition, an annual Wexford ICA contest. This year, the theme is ‘Ireland 100 years on from 1916’.
The preliminary instruction carries the precision of an earlier age but it doesn’t put the girls off: “Each guild has to supply their own 4ft x 2 ft table. Each table must be covered in white material to the floor on all sides, to ensure all tables are identical.”
They feel equal to tasks like making an Easter egg basket that includes six decorated hen eggs or creating a fresh flower arrangement to commemorate 1916 “to include a maximum of three symbols”. They also discussed a planned make-up evening (Áine loves ‘beauty things’ and Shauna likes make-up tutorials). Business teacher Lesley Bates came on board. “She’s a young teacher and knows what make-up would suit them,” says Ms Fitzgerald.
The Bridgetown Flowers are still figuring out what their identity as a guild will be, but an altruistic theme is emerging. They’ve done a clothes collection for the Peter McVerry Trust; a food appeal for the Society of St Vincent de Paul; they helped the Women’s Refuge in Wexford; and they’ve knit a blanket for Syria.
Like many of her ICA colleagues, Ms Fitzgerald was delighted but surprised that the girls wanted to set up an ICA guild. “When we put pictures of the launch and badge presentation on our Facebook page, over 2,000 people saw or shared it.”
Wexford women have a history of ICA trail-blazing. Anita Lett founded the organisation in Bree in 1910 and the longest-standing ICA member ever was Wexford’s Margaret Quirke. She joined in 1924 aged 10 and was still a member when she died at 97.
The largest women’s association in Ireland, the ICA has more than 10,000 members. These girls are among its youngest members. Apart from ICA membership looking good on their CV, Ms Fitzgerald hopes that when they go to college, they’ll get involved in a guild. “These women are great organisers. They could run the country. I do feel they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future.”
Meanwhile, the Bridgetown Flowers are making history, and walking in the footsteps of the sisterhood who came before them.
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