Congratulations and all our good wishes to our Buan Cara Monica
on her 90th Birthday
Our thanks to everyone who supported our
centenary celebration with Paddy Cole and his All Star Band.
It was a great night and we raised €3150 for An Grianan.
The sub committee who organised the event
Lue Sillery, Hilda Roche, Claire Timmons,
Una Ryan and Sheila Sherlock travelled to An Grianan
and presented the cheque to the manager Ann Flanagan.
Our AGM was held on 13th April attended by Information Officer Jane Cronin
Hilda Roche was Guild Person of the Year
Carmel Simmons was Committee Person of the Year
Some of our members travelled to Wexford to be part of the main national centenary celebrations which started off with a gala dinner
in the Ferrycarrig hotel followed by music and dancing.
The next day we travelled to watch our national president
lay a wreath on the grave of the founder of ICA Anita Lett
in the graveyard beside the Church of Ireland in Bree.
Then following an ecumenical service of thanksgiving
in the Catholic Church we were piped down to the community hall
for speeches followed by a buffet dinner
and more wonderful entertainment.
It was wonderful to be a part of this celebration of our centenary.
Well done and thank you to Bree Guild and Wexford federation
for all their work and organisation.
As part of our centenary celebrations 11 guild members spend a great few days in the beautiful Dingle Peninsula and attended the
Spring Conference hosted by Kerry Federation
whose president is our past member JoAnn Lenehan.
We had a tour around Slea head stopping to take photos of the beautiful views and to walk on Coomeenole beach.
The weather was very kind to us.
Another tour brought us to Cuas or Brandon Creek where
St Brenndan is supposed to have set sail for America
and to Gallarus an 8th century oratory.
We walked on Béal Ban another beautiful beach
and had tea in Tóg Bog E
We enjoyed lovely food and lots of pampering and an oiche ceoil where our 'choir' sang and a table quiz where we were the only ones who knew one of the answers!
The question was
'What was the name of the place where Glenroe was filmed'
and most important of all we had great fun and lots of laughter.
We travelled to Tralee where the conference was held via the
Conor Pass and on our last night we all enjoyed a night at the dogs.
Congratulations to two of our members Deirdre and Bridget
on the birth of their babies Liam and Amelia.
Both babies come to their Mum's craft class.
Ashford won the Eleanora Cup
with their hilarious version of The School Around the Corner
Click on Competitions and read more about this great win.
This was performed again at the recent winter conference in
Ashdown Park Hotel Gorey
as part of the Friday night's entertainment.
Catherine Carey the winner of the centenary brooch design
was presented with one of the new brooches
at the recent winter conference.
At our AGM in 2008 it was unanimously agreed
that Terri Connolly be made a
BUAN CARA
of the guild
This was done in recognition of Terri's long commitment to ICA
and the huge contribution she made to ICA
in so many different ways through the years.
Among her ICA achievements Terri has served
as Guild Secretary and President.
She has been very active in all guild events,
a valued part of the drama group,
a talented craft worker and a great organizer.
Terri ran dog shows and fashion shows
which raised substantial sums of money for chosen charities.
She gave generously of her time and expertise
and Terri's wealth of knowledge about all ICA matters
has been of huge benefit to the guild.
Sadly Terri has suffered a bad stroke
and is no longer able to be an active member.
We all miss her at our guild meetings, at the crafts, at drama rehearsals and on all our outings and social events.
All the members of Ashford ICA are deeply saddened
by the death of our BuanCara Betty Manning in her 100th year.
Betty was greatly loved by us all and was an inspiration to us.
The Guild presented a trophy in memory of Betty to be used at national level for a competition to promote the guilds and encourage them to provide intresting programmes for their members.
The first competition for the Betty Manning trophy
was to produce a guild year book telling of all the guild activities
for the ICA year 2008-2009.
The books which went to the national judging were stunning.
A
huge amount of work went into them and showed what
wonderful things are happening in guilds all over the country.
The first winners of the Betty Manning Trophy
were Annascaul Guild from Kerry.
What a lovely link, because of course JoAnn Lenehan who was a member of Ashford Guild for many years is now a member of Annascaul Guild.
Here she is with Annascaul Guild President Liz O'Leary being presented with the trophy by our national president Anne Maria Dennison.
Their year book was magnificent and earned them 192 marks out of 200.
There was great excitement in Ashford ICA when we heard that
our Buan Cara Monica Barry was to appear on Winning Streak.
Some members were delighted to join with her family and friends in RTE
Monica did very well and got to spin the wheel
All the members of the guild said it couldn't happen to a nicer person.
