BY AMYROSE HARTE
THE artistic talents of the Arranmore Women's group will be launched later this week.
Mr Éamon Ó Cuív TD, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs will be on the island on Thursday to open an exhibition of their work.
The type of arts and crafts produced by the women is wide and varied, ranging from painting with different mediums on canvas, plate, glass and fabric, to, decoupage, embroidery, quilting, patchwork to name but a few.
"The range is actually quite stunning in its variety and I think I can safely say that we are the only island Womens group to produce such a huge variety of arts and crafts and have an exhibition which is exclusive to women from Arranmore Island," said Ms Nora Flanagan spokesperson for the group.
The Arranmore Womens group was established 10 years ago under the auspices of the New Opportunities for Women Programme funded by the EU. Its aim is to provide rural women with the opportunity of meeting women from similar backgrounds and accessing information on all aspects of living in rural communities.
At present, the group are undertaking a joint quilting venture with the Glencolmcille Women's Group.
This quilt is based on the story of a man from Glencolmcille, Matthew Lyons, who had a stall at the monthly fair in Dungloe selling blankets and tweeds. Women from Arranmore often visited the fair. Nuala Green was one of these women who visited and would spend a lot of time at Matthew's stall pretending to look at the blankets. The couple fell in love and Matthew asked Nuala to marry him but she had to get her parents' permission.
Matthew wanted his answer that evening so he suggested if Nuala's parents agreed to the match she would light a fire on the highest hill in Arranmore visible from Glen Head and he would light the corresponding fire on Glen Head. The fires were duly lit and the couple married and lived in Arranmore producing seven children.
The centre piece for the quilt is the fires painted on fabric and both Women's Groups are doing blocks of patchwork with various love themes. Both Groups of women are also depicting local scenes, with the Arranmore Women featuring St Crone (the patron saint of the Rosses), taken from the stained glass window in our local church and the Arranmore Lighthouse. The Glencolmcille Women's Group are featuring The Glen Angels and The Standing Stones.
The Quilt has attracted a lot of attention from the media and other patch working groups and we are having the first showing of the completed quilt in Derry in March 2008 to coincide with International Womens Day. This is part of an International Exhibition of Patchwork which includes patchwork from the women of Peru as well as from other countries.
