Posts Tagged ‘ICA’

Electric Irish Homes textile art project showcase, May 2019

Posted by ku19205

The Electric Irish Homes textile art project involves a group of Mayo women working in textiles to respond to the themes of the Electric Irish Homes project and the Kitchen Power exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life. Commissioned by Age & Opportunity and funded by the AHRC through Kingston University, Sligo artist Anna Spearman has been working with this group of women since August 2018 to develop their creative response to the impact of rural electrification in their lives.

 

This work will go on display in July 2019 as part of the Kitchen Power exhibition, but we held a showcase of the work in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life as part of the Bealtaine Festival 2019, which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age.

 

Electric Irish Homes project participants working with Anna Speaman and Sorcha O'Brien in An Grianán, August 2018

Electric Irish Homes project participants working with Anna Spearman and Sorcha O’Brien in An Grianán, August 2018

 

The project started with a two-day trip to An Grianán, the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) adult education college in Termonfeckin, County Louth, where Sorcha briefed the group on the research and Anna ran a series of creative workshops in response. This kicked off a series of workshops in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, which included writing workshops with Fiona Keane from SixPens Creative Writing, a tour of the museum stores, and experimentation with both paper and textiles.

 

Project participants working with Anna Spearman in the NMI Country Life, January 2019

Project participants working with Anna Spearman in the NMI Country Life, January 2019

 

As part of the Bealtaine Festival, we held a textile art project showcase in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life at the end of May. Sorcha and project participant Noreen Durken were interviewed by Tommy Marren on Midwest Radio a few days before the event, which brought in a large crowd on a very wet day.

 

Audience at the Electric Irish Homes texilte art showcase, May 2019

Audience at the Electric Irish Homes textile art showcase, May 2019

 

The showcase started with a talk from Sorcha about her research about women’s experiences of rural electrification, which was followed by Anna Spearman and participants Noreen Durken and Maura McGuinness speaking about their experiences of the textile art project. Dr Tara Byrne, Arts and Culture Programme Manager at Age & Opportunity and Artistic Director of the Bealtaine Festival, spoke about the festival and its role in creating wider access to the arts and creativity across Ireland.

 

Maura McGuinness talking about her involvement in the project, May 2019

Maura McGuinness talking about her involvement in the project, May 2019

 

The showcase also involved a preview screening of a short film about the project by Brian Cregan, and a display of the textile work carried out by the participants, as well as notebooks, test pieces and some examples of their own work.

Anna Spearman showing the individual pieces to Tara Byrne of Age & Opportunity

Anna Spearman showing the participants’ individual pieces to Tara Byrne of Age & Opportunity

 

Project participants have also made up DIY craft packs, which will be available in the museum shop. These packs are based on four different designs produced by the group, and include a screen printed ‘pattern’ and a selection of fabric and threads for crafters to create their own versions of the designs. Photographs of the finished pieces can be uploaded to the museum Our Irish Heritage website, where they will be displayed later this year.

 

Electric Irish Homes DIY textile art pack, May 2019

Electric Irish Homes DIY textile art pack, May 2019

 

The textile art work will be on display on Level B of the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life from the 20th July, as part of the Kitchen Power exhibition. Many thanks to the National Museum of Ireland Education department; AHRC; Age & Opportunity; Anna Spearman; Brian Cregan; Fiona Keane, SixPens Creative Writing; Pulled Screen Printing & Design; and particularly the project participants Patricia Ashby, Sheila Baynes, Noreen Durkan, Rose Geraghty, Mary Gillard, Rose Mac Hugh, Marian McDonagh, Maura McGuinness, Bridie McNeela, Breege Norris, Nora O’Leary, Mary O’Reilly, Teresa Quinn and Mary Walsh. All photographs by Brian Cregan.

 

Oral History Article in the Irish Examiner

Posted by ku19205

Sorcha and Brigid in Cork

Coming out of the involvement of West Cork ICA with the project, we have just had this article in the Farming pages of the Irish Examiner, which talks about the oral history aspect of the research, highlighting the ICA members who have been interviewed.

https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/irish-examiner-farming/20180111/281947428248764

 

Clones ICA oral history interviews

Posted by ku19205

The second round of oral history interviews were carried out by Geraldine O’Connor from Clones ICA. These included members of both Clones and Aghabog ICA guilds, as well as some friends and relatives. The main rural electrification covering Clones town and environs, Smithboro, Newbliss and Drumcall, were electrified between 1959 and 1961, while areas further out such as Tydavnet and Scotshouse had been electrified much earlier (1948 and 1952/53 respectively), and there were strong memories in the area, both of life before the coming of electricity, and of the changes it brought.

 

Electric Irish Homes project participants at Clones ICA meeting, 2017

Electric Irish Homes project participants at Clones ICA meeting, 2017

 

Sorcha travelled to Monaghan in February to meet the participants at a meeting of the Clones ICA, which included a group discussion of the experience of rural electrification in the Border counties (and some excellent cake). Geraldine, an experienced local historian, then carried out twelve interviews over the following weeks, gathering a wealth of memories about rural electrification and the ICA.  These interviews really demonstrate the depth of changes that rural electrification brought to rural Irish women, particularly reducing the back-breaking work of washing by hand and ironing with flat or smoothing irons. The differences in cooking also came up, with participants talking about the different ways of adapting the baking of brown bread in electric ovens.

 

Rosemary Connolly with her collection of irons

Rosemary Connolly with her collection of irons (pre-electric smoothing iron on far right)

 

The history of the ESB was represented by an interview with Dan Kerr, who had worked for the ESB on their demonstration vans in the early 1960s, and shared his insights into selling techniques and merchandise. Some of the history of the ICA was also captured in Mamo McDonald’s interview, as she spoke about her experiences visiting An Grianán for training courses in the 1960s and the support within the ICA for rural electrification. Listen here to Mamo talking about some of the tactics used to convince farmers to install electricity and running water in the farmhouse, as well as the farm.

 

 

This is only a very brief glimpse of the wealth of discussion and memories in these interviews, which form part of the research for the Electric Irish Homes book and exhibition. Our thanks go to Geraldine O’Connor and all of the interviewees from the Clones area for giving their time and memories to the project!