Crafts

Crafts Connie McEvoy recalls meeting a cele brated Kindergarten teacher A Visitor from Trinidad

While relaxing and amusing myself on Facebook on Wednesday night June 9th 2021 by listening to the music of Hauser, Luka Sulic and Andre Rieu as well as the music that comes my way on a regular basis courtesy of John Low the following notice attracted my attention, it read as follows;

I.C.A. June 7th A.C.W.W. Rural Women in action. Tomorrow June 8th is World Oceans day.

At the 2019 Triennial World conference in Melbourne, A.C.W. W. members voted to accept a resolution on our shared marine environment. This resolution states ‘Be it resolved member societies of A.C.W.W. request their governments and industries to take urgent action, as appropriate, to ensure the wise use and protection of the shared marine environment, to protect the sustainability of coral reefs and fish stocks for future generations’. This is not the first resolution of its kind from A.C.W.W. members. In fact we’ve been passing resolutions on protecting and preserving the environment since 1953.

Right away I found myself in a reflective mood, searched some of my old diaries and photo albums and here is the result.

On Easter Monday 1962 as a live- in member of staff at An Grianan I had arrived back from home together with other staff members after our Easter holidays, as about 50 students would be arriving to start various 5 day courses that evening also between 7.30 to 9.30 pm everything would have to be organised so as things would run smoothly as expected by tutors and students.

Confident that all was well after high tea was served I decided to spend some time relaxing in the drawing room listening to classical music while doing some Mountmellick work before retiring for the night having left home that day at 8am. I was feeling so relaxed and happy in my home from home though, until board member Muriel Kehoe and President of Louth ICA Federation Mrs Stafford arrived in the drawing room announcing Connie we have a pleasant surprise for you and introduced a lady I had never seen or heard of before, we would like you to meet a Kindergarten teacher Mrs Elmina Allen from Trinidad! Mrs Stafford went on to explain that this lady was going to be staying with us for five months. Mrs Allen was smiling as she shook my hand and said hello but she was looking at the little table mat that I was working on before asking why I only used thick white thread on heavy white fabric and a motif of leaves without flowers, after giving a brief but adequate explanation I asked why she had come such a distance to stay with us.

Muriel Kehoe arranged for the four of us to have tea, currant bread, freshly made country butter and blackcurrant jam for supper while I was being informed as follows; At the Ninth Triennial Conference of the Associated Country-women of the World held in Edinburgh in 1959 the Lady Aberdeen Scholarship scheme was established- its purpose, to train women in Home Economics, Nutrition and Rural Community Welfare. Subsequently the Irish Countrywomen’s Association offered hospitality and free tuition at An Grianan to a student selected by A.C.W.W. under this scheme, Mrs Almina Allen was that student and through invitations from I.C.A. members she would also be meeting Irish people in their homes from time to time while based in Termonfeckin. She sometimes spoke afterwards of attending as a guest of Mrs. Lloyd, the Folk School Week at Inch Co. Wexford so that visit must have impressed her. After breakfast on Tuesday morning she was invited to the sewing room where Miss Lily Jones would be directing a dressmaking class of 10 students each day for the rest of the week, but due to the fact that Mrs Allen preferred to work on small projects so as to facilitate luggage weight restrictions on her return to Trinidad Miss Jones decided to let her design and work machine embroidered handkerchiefs on lawn fabric. All classes ended at 4.pm in those days so students and tutors had a cup of tea and some biscuits before walking to the strand or to the village for exercise before high tea at 6.pm, afterwards all were free to do as they pleased but Mrs Allen always went to the sewing room to make hankies and work on a sampler of the Mountmellick Work stitches I used in the table mat under my supervision until supper time at 10 PM.

All students departed for home on Saturday mornings and all An Grianan staff got a half day on Saturdays, live-in staff ten in number catered for themselves until Monday except for Sunday dinner which was served at 1.pm as usual but a

son Jerome, I was in a position to while away many hours on my computer didn’t involve cryptic cross words.

I have included the photo that was taken in the walled garden of Mrs Allen and I hostesses for that day dressed in our Sunday best with the onions and the A W. W. pin plus machine embroidered handkerchiefs. Also a photo of the Mountmellick Work table mat plus pattern/design together with working instructions that I worked on then. Also a photo copy + information re (Miss Lily Jones), and a photo that was taken on the day of Mrs Allen’s departure from An Grianan.

rota was in operation where-by two members would be responsible for the menu, preparation and cooking of this meal. An Grianan was more or less self- sufficient in those days but the house keeper Anne Hamill would order beef, lamb, ham or fish as required for Sunday dinner. As it happened on one week end Mrs Allen and I were to do the catering, Mrs Allen opted to do the starter, we would both do the main course and I would do dessert. As I decided to make 12 individual rhubarb panna cottas using the tried and trusted recipe of the Kelly/Kavanagh clan I had prepared dessert on Saturday night and placed it in the fridge, I can’t remember what was on the menu at all for the main course but all was going as planned in the kitchen where there was a huge AGA cooker when Mrs Allen discovered that the head gardener Harry Synnott had left no onions in the pantry before he went on his half day and she wanted to make French onion soup for starters. Although there were no onions in the kitchen it was the first time that I had seen a woman so close to tears in my life and realizing that serving her French onion soup to the rest of us seemed to mean so much to her I decided to break the rules, go to the office and get the key to the Walled Garden on condition that she pulled the onions herself.

We thought that all other staff members were at second mass that morning but Miss Mary Guilfoyle who looked after the cows, dairy and poultry observed our movements from the dairy window. She was curious as to what we were up to so she followed us with her Kodak Brownie camera and took photos of us with the onions, she was highly amused at our predicament but afterwards a really tasty dinner was enjoyed that day, although Miss Guilfoyle was beaming from ear to ear for the duration at the dinner table she never spilled the beans!!

Those were happy days then- we still had trials and tribulations even though there was no Delta variant to torment us, I am glad that I saw that notice on Facebook last June as I was able to relive some of the interesting and happy experiences of the early 1960s, and it’s comforting to know that after all this time A.C.W.W. members are still endeavouring to do all in their power to protect our environment. (We never heard from Mrs Allen after her departure, I still have the A.C.W.W. pin and two of the handkerchiefs that she embroidered and gave me as a parting gift then) but thanks to high fibre broadband and my son Jerome, I was in a position to while away many hours on my computer that didn’t involve cryptic cross words.

I have included the photo that was taken in the walled garden of Mrs Allen and I hostesses for that day dressed in our Sunday best with the onions and the A. C. W. W. pin plus machine embroidered handkerchiefs. Also a photo of the Mountmellick Work table mat plus pattern/ design together with working instructions that I worked on then. Also a photo copy + information re (Miss Lily Jones), and a photo that was taken on the day of Mrs Allen’s departure from An Grianan.

Competition winners from the last issue and seniortimes.ie

Two Naxos Music Box subscriptions Mary Dunphy, Limerick T McCabe, Wexford

Four copies of Butlers Chocolate Cookbook B O’Regan, Clonakilty, Co Cork E Foley, Blackrock, Co Dublin Anna Twomey, Blarney, Co Cork Deirdre O’Sullivan, Dundalk, Co Louth

Crossword. Four copies of This Day in Irish History Michael Morrisey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford Margaret Cunningham, Youghal, Co Cork Bridie Healy, Kill, Co Kildare Patrick Kavanagh, Mullingar, Co Westmeath

Guess the year: 1989