January brought heavy storms with high winds, alternating with days that were bright and mild. This was a welcome change from last year, when all the days were stormy and windy.
I was contacted by a group of ladies who live on Inis Oirr (Inisheer), the smallest of the Aran Islands. They were eager to get a break from winter on the island, and to do a patchwork class, so after making our arrangements, we left the date open to accommodate their ability to get off the island. They would be depending on the ferry or a small plane, and bad weather most certainly would keep them on the island. Having checked the forecasts and settling on a date, we arranged to meet in Westport, Co. Mayo, at the Atlantic Coast Hotel.
Fortunately, the good weather held for the weekend of our workshop. Westport is a good four hour drive from Glassagh, so we left a day early to take a leisurely drive and be settled in the hotel, ready for the island ladies. They duly arrived, having driven up from Galway. Many island people keep a car on the mainland, so travel is convenient if they manage to get away.
The group consisted of six women, the leader being an American from Wisconsin. Her daughter had married and settled on the island, and in the course of visiting her daughter, she, too, married and settled on the island herself! The other five women in the group were Irish, and four had been born and raised on the island. Three of them do Bed & Breakfast during the summer months when the tourist season is in full swing.
Inisheer Ladies
These ladies were a real kick, and were already accomplished patchworkers. They showed me pictures of the quilt show they presented on their island in the community center. I gave them a workshop in hand applique, but it is too soon to tell if they will finish their samples and go on to do more! I also did a small trunk show for them, focusing mainly on my applique wall hangings. The hotel let us take over their library, so we had plenty of room for our gatherings.
After dinner at the hotel the first night, we decided to try the Helm on the next night. The Helm is a short walk away, and the building it is located in is the (renovated) house that Sean MacBride was born in. Sean MacBride was one of the original signers of the Irish Proclamation that declared Ireland to be a republic, free from English rule, back in 1916. Inside the pub/restaurant they have plenty of old newspaper articles and pictures of Sean MacBride. He was executed by the British in 1916, but he will never be forgotten, and his boyhood home bears a plaque to his memory.
The Helm Pub & Restaurant
We stopped in at Matt Molloy's pub in the center of the town. It was thick with people, and my husband elbowed our way to the back room where the music was while I held on to his coat to keep from being separated from him in the crowd! Matt Molloy is a famous flute player who used to play with the Bothy Band, the Chieftans and sundry Irish music groups. We had as much difficulty getting out as we did getting in!
Matt Molloy's Pub
On another evening, we went to the Shebeen, and enjoyed chatting with some of the locals. The Shebeen is an old establishment in a thatched building, beautifully maintained. The latest "drink-driving" laws are much stricter now, and the older gentleman we were talking to was there for his single pint. He echoed others we had heard saying that they couldn't take the chance being stopped if they had a second drink. The next night we went to McGing's, where I chanced to speak with a gal who is a friend of Kevin Burke because her husband plays guitar with Kevin when he's in town. We had a pleasant and illuminating conversation.
On the Monday we all went to the local quilt shop, Clew Bay Quilting Studio, outside of Westport on scenic Clew Bay. We drove out past Croagh Patrick to a house with a lovely view of the bay. The shop is located in the second floor of the owner's house, and her selection of fabric and notions was excellent. We spent so much time looking at the goods and choosing our purchases, that she asked a couple of us to go downstairs and put on the kettle. We all had a cup of tea, and the owner, Brenda Maloney, sliced up a fruit cake for us and served cookies and grapes as well. The tea definitely revived us, as we then went upstairs for Round Two and bought several more "fat quarter" bundles that we suddenly found irresistible. This shop is worth a visit if you're in the area. Call first for directions, because there is no sign on the road to indicate her location.
The hotel was located on the quays, and there was plenty of opportunity to walk around and take pictures. We especially enjoyed the boats and the swans. On our last day, our group went to the Museum of Folk Life in Turlough, where Mary, our leader, had arranged for the curator to show us the quilts in the archives.
The museum itself is located on the old Fitzgerald Estate. We bought a booklet on the history of the Fitzgerald family, and found that they had originally come from Tuscany, in Italy. They descend from the Gherardini family of Florence in Tuscany, some time before 1057, when Otho (the founder of the line) moved from Italy to Normandy, and then to England. The family name became Geraldine, and his grandson, Gerald Fitz Walter, changed the name from Geraldine to FitzGerald. In 1653 they moved from Kilkenny to Turlough. They remained in Turlough until 1991.
FitzGerald Estate
The museum exhibits portrayed life in Ireland and on several of the surrounding islands. Every detail of life is chronicled, from the clothing to the hand made furniture to thatching, rope-making, the implements for working outside and inside the home, the dancing master with his miniature fiddle, the keening that was customary at a funeral, and every little thing that pertained to daily life long ago. They even had recordings of letters that had been written home by some who had emigrated, and a reconstruction of an Irish kitchen as it would have looked in the past.
Hand-carved Cradle
Islander Clothing
Spinning Wheel
After spending a couple of hours with the exhibits, we had a bite to eat in the museum cafeteria which offered delectable goodies of all kinds. Then we were shown the quilts, which are kept in acid-free tissue in boxes in the archives. The most interesting ones were unfinished, with the paper templates still inside the pieces that were being sewn together. There were a couple of hexagon quilts with the papers still in them, and a heavy woolen quilt that was hand quilted with heavy red thread. When the curator discovered that our group included three women who were expert knitters and had grown up on Inisheer, they were pressed into service to identify family knitting patterns, and to identify people in photographs that had been taken many years before on Inisheer. In this way, the ladies were able to supply information that the museum was lacking!
Pieced Squares, early 1900's
Back of quilt, showing paper pieces
After parting with the island group, we made our way to Roscommon to visit with my (former) sister-in-law, Joan. Her two daughters were at home (although her husband and two sons were away), and we had a good visit, catching up on old times and looking at family photos. She gave us a lovely dinner and I showed her the quilts that I had brought for the trunk show. After leaving her house, we drove as far as Mullaghmore (Co. Sligo) and stopped into the Pier Head Hotel for the night.
Lisa with Joan in Roscommon
At the hotel in Mullaghmore
After a relaxing soak in their hot tub after breakfast, we continued our journey to Donegal. A short drive up the road we saw a man thatching a roof. We stopped to take a picture, and he called us over and came down the ladder. We had a long, interesting chat with this man and his son, and took plenty of pictures of them and the tools of the trade.
House being thatched
Close-up of thatching
Chatting with thatchers
We eventually arrived home in the late afternoon and walked down to the lake to check on the two young swans that had taken up residence there before Christmas. They were still there, lovely as ever.
Later in the month, we had a night of extremely high winds, about 108 mph, and it blew the doors off our landlord's new garden shed. After a day or two, my husband figured out how to fix it, and it looked fine. Last night, another storm came through, and this time the wind blew the whole shed to pieces, necessitating retrieval of parts from another neighbor's yard. There would be no putting it back together this time.
