A Day out in St Enda’s on 7 th July – some pictures below
Rachel Gillan, Sr. Margaret, Mrs Higgins and Jessica Hanney
This is my last post as your President and I would like to say thank-you for your support during the last two years. I enjoyed myself immensely and met many interesting people with you at the Meetings. All this would not have been possible without my exceptional Committee (link) and members who run the Book Club, Irish Classes, Yoga, Craft Mornings and the backbone of all Meetings the Tea Hostesses. On 25th May I received, as your President, a Certificate in recognition of local volunteers in DLRCoCo. Enjoy your summer break and prepare to return to the Meetings and other activities on Thursday, September 8, 2016.
We are exceptionally lucky to have Sheila Hurley as our new President for the coming year.
She, like all Guild Presidents, needs your full support. Do this by attendance at Meetings, extra activities and helping on sub-committees. If you think you know someone who could give a Talk to our Guild, please tell Sheila.
AT OUR LAST MEETING OF THIS YEAR HELD held on Thursday 26 May our guest was Dr. Séamus Cannon, a Ulysses hobbyist and vice chairperson of the Society of Friends of Joyce Tower. Firmly convinced that Ulysses is Ireland’s most popular unread book he delivers courses on Reading Ulysses.
Feedback from the ladies was very complimentary and everyone enjoyed an amusing evening all due to Séamus’ passionate delivery of demystifying Ulysses.
Poetry and Song in Joyce Tower
On May 14, 2016 we held our AGM. The members elected Sheila Hurley as the President for year 2016-2017 (full Committee listed below). At the Meeting Jessica Hanney, outgoing President, invited the Clarke family to present their cup to the winner of the Mary Clarke Cup, Pauline Black. The cup was presented to the Guild Member who had done her utmost for the Guild during the past year. The winner was chosen by the attendees at the Meeting. Congratulations Pauline.
At the AGM on 14th May the following were elected to Committee for year 2016-2017.
Election of the following guild members to Committee as follows:
President: Sheila Hurley,
Vice President: Fidelma Fagan,
Treasurer: Olive Worrall,
Secretary: Nina Sheridan,
Kay Beare
Nan Collins
Teresa O’Neill
Mary White
Mary McSweeney
Rosemary Lawlor, Annette Hanney and Anne O’Dea.
MARCH NOTES
What the Craft Ladies are making at present on Monday mornings (10.30-12.00)
A group of Guild Members recently visited Dublin’s Mansion House as guests of the Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh. A charming lady who made us feel very welcome. Our thanks also to the former Lady Mayoress, Patsy Mitchell (Guild Member) for arranging the visit . Having Patsy with us added very much to the evening. She remembered her time there. Her daughter was born there. During the Mitchell’s time in residence Patsy helped open up the house and purchase items (chandeliers in the Oak Room) to help start it’s restoration to the lovely House it is today. It had not been lived in for the previous 35 years.
The Mansion House is unique, however, in that since 1970’s, following restoration it retains its residential function in addition to its public function.
There were memories also that night for Sheila Hurley, our Art’s Promoter. She is a member of the Hicks family. Her father and uncle made many pieces of furniture for the Mansion House. There are still to be seen today.
Here are photos –
On Saturday March 12, forty of our members
went to An Grianán to the Official Commemoration by ICA of 1916 – it was a great day
and I hope that Merrion Road put up the talks on their website. If not, can a special edition of Findings be devoted to them – thank you, Madame President, Marie O’Toole, for an inspiring day. 
At our Guild Meeting to commemorate 1916 Anniversary on March 10 we were very fortunate to have at the Guild author Liz Gillis talking about her publication
“Women of the Irish Revolution“. The book tells the story of the role that women played both directly and indirectly in the Irish revolution. They were part of a generation who made a conscious decision to stand up for not only their rights, but also the rights of future generations. The story is also told of those who, though not directly involved, lost so much as a result of that conflict.
Easter Preparations
Also at that Meeting we held our Easter Competition. This year it was “A cake for Easter” and the winning entry is pictured here. It was baked by Patsy Mitchell. Our judge for the evening was the talented Mairead McEntee. Though the number of entries in the competition was low the standard was amazing and made Mairead’s decision a difficult one.
Entries in 
Easter CompetitionFEBRUARY NOTES
We had our Irish Night with music and typical Irish food. Lily and Eithne our Irish Promoters worked so hard to make a success of the evening (photos later)
JANUARY NOTES
The Next Guild Meeting, on Thurs. January 28, is a very special. Our International Officer, Kay Beare is hosting and evening about Russia. Our guest speaker on the evening is Diarmuid Fleming RTE reporter – the title of his talk is “Russia – a fascinating place and people”. Diarmuid was BBC’s man in Moscow for some years.
January has got off to a terrific start with a very informative evening from Bernadette Parte, Solicitor, about the necessity to make a Will and the advantages of making plans for when we are older. It was one of the most successful evenings we had had this year – these are subjects we all need to think about –
DECEMBER notes
T
To finish the calendar year 2015, the Guild, on December 10, held a wonderful evening of Christmas Flowers with Anne O’Dea and Sheila Hurley. The arrangements were raffled and proceeds went to the VdeP charity. Also in the raffle were very generous gift tokens from two local shops – George King Victualler and Fergal Freeney Fishmonger. (photos from our Christmas Flower evening are above)
and
Here are some photos from the Christmas Party. A very popular event each year.
NOVEMBER notes
On November 26 we had our Christmas Party. at Marley Parish Centre.
The evening’s music was arranged by Frank Hurley and band “UPFRONT” with carols sung by yourselves and Suzanne Mc Kenzie. Food was by Glencullen Catering. Guild member, Mary White gave us Lir chocolates for each guest to enjoy after dinner
At our first meeting in November we met Pamela O’Connor, Architect with DLRCoCo. Pamela told us about Marlay House’s and Laurelmere’s (now home to RHSI) restoration. Also, the plans for future works on the buildings in Marlay Park. The beautiful flower arrangement presented to Pamela was the work of our Crafts’ Promoter, Anne O’Dea.
DLRCoCo has been a great sponsor of our Guild during recent year. We have benefited greatly from Community Grants available from them.
OCTOBER notes
Finishing off October
Our most recent Meeting introduced our Guild Members to Dublin’s Theatre Royal, which closed in the sixties and spanned over 30 years. The talk was given to us by Conor Doyle.
Conor having inherited what is believed to be one of the largest Irish theatre, film, TV and radio memorabilia collections from his godparents Jimmy 
O’Dea and Ursula Doyle. The Collection has been donated to the Irish Theatre Archive and parts to the National Museum of Ireland.
Conor has now given over sixty Talks about Dublin’s long lost and much loved “Royal” to different Historical Society’s and Groups around the city..
At our first Meeting earlier in October, we had Joe Duignan , co-author accompanied by another of the co-authors, Kevin Cullen visit the Guild. They with another, Pat Casey, wrote a book dedicated to the Irish Doctors who served in the WWI . It was surprising how many Guild members have connections with these men. We have been given a copy of the work to raffle among our members. The winner is Mary Curren. There is a link below to the official web page for the book. Irish Doctors in the First World War Their honorarium was given to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
In September we had the pleasure of Meeting Kari Rosvall. Kari has come to live in Dublin. May we say found peace there and decided to write the story of her life so far. Everyone should read her biography “Nowhere’s Child” about her childhood and young life.
Later in September we met Lorna Siggins 
who is Western and Marine correspondent for The Irish Times, based in Galway. She has worked in journalism for the last 30 years, starting as a freelance with The Irish Skipper, and has reported on news events ranging from the Piper Alpha explosion off Scotland in 1988 to Irish aid programmes in Somalia and El Salvador to the first Irish expedition to Everest in 1993. She has been based on the west coast for the past 15 years, and is author of several books, including Everest Calling and Once Upon a Time in the West: the Corrib gas project.
But this lady is not tied to the past she spoke about her recent visit to Calais (see her note below).
The evening went really well for all of us and Lorna sent us the following thank-you note:
“Thank you so much for having me, and you have a lovely guild ! It was such a pleasure to speak to a really interested and committed audience.
And thank you so much for the cheque, which I am donating to Auberge des Migrants, a French NGO working with migrants/refugees in the Calais “Jungle” on your behalf. Here’s a link to some of its work..
all the very best! Lorna
SEPTEMBER Thursday 10th
Kari Rosvall, local author ‘ “How to live as nowhere’s child” was our first speaker of the year. An extraordinary lady who has led an extraordinary life.
APOLOGIES:
Typing errors in printed Programme 2015-16
I wish to extend deepest apologies to:
Liz Gillis, who I 
incorrectly named on the Programme as Ruth Gillis.
and to Kevin Honan : Book of Kells should have read Book of Pilgrims
These are unforgivable errors on my part and should not have happened. Jessica Hanney