BORRIS LACEMAKERS

There isn’t a month that goes by for Borris Lacemakers but something unexpected happens and June is already no exception! Prior to her visit to the Borris Writer’s Festival author Nazannin  Zaghari-Ratcliffe found the Borris Lacemakers details and emailed with a view to seeing some of the lace.  Nazannin spent six years in prison in Iran as a political hostage, released only in 2022. Since her release she has been working on the healing power of creativity with a focus on sewing and stitching working with charity organisations, prisons etc.  Members of the group were honoured to meet Nazannin on Friday June 9^th and gave her some background to the current group, the history of Borris Lace and offered her the opportunity to try a few stitches. Sara Kavanagh, Borris House, very kindly showed her the beautiful lace collection in Borris House and she went home with a photo of herself wearing a Borris Lace collar and a Borris Lace kit to continue practising the stitches. We look forward to further communication with this fascinating individual.

Also on June 9^th five ‘lace ladies’ arrived back from Greece full of their experiences in two European projects Craftwork 4.0 All and Digitext.  Catherine Kavanagh and Brigid Fox participated in the Craftwork project with CUBE, a Greek, not for profit organisation that focusses on promoting social inclusion, sustainable entrepreneurship, and empowerment for youth, women, and vulnerable groups.  Bringing the authentic tradition of Borris Lace to twenty young participants, both male and female from over seven different countries was very rewarding for the two tutors.  The workshops, spread over two days, embraced cultural differences and modern creativity and were educational, interactive and intergenerational. Mary O’Neill, Brigid O’Regan and Maeve O’Reilly were three other members of Borris Lacemakers who travelled to Greece and these three were involved in the Digitext and Erasmus Plus Project. This programme focussed on the various stages of manufacturing textiles and Mary, Brigid & Maeve participated in study visits hosted by the Chamber of Kilkis and met with representatives of the International Hellenci University, local SMEs and visited textile and dyeing businesses.  

Further on a European platform Helena McAteer, secretary of Borris Lacemakers, was a guest speaker on June 10^th on a webinar hosted by European Crafts Alliance (ECA). This is a non-profit network organisation incorporating twenty three countries and promotes knowledge sharing, growth, preservation and valorisation of crafts. The topic of the webinar was ‘The role of craft in wellbeing across Life Stages.’ Helena concentrated on two very successful projects ‘Borris Lace by Post’ and ‘Borris Lace Exchange’ which were aimed at older members of the community and took place in conjunction with Carlow Co. Council and local artists Ally Nolan and Jules Michael.

https://youtu.be/LF6c9-j7V6k?si=g9mKo8GsAYhaxzl-