Reeling in Sixty One Years of Camross ICA
Camross ICA guild was founded on Mon. 4th Sept. 1961, sixteen ladies attended
that first meeting and signed up for membership at 5 schillings. First President was Attracta O’Callaghan, Vice President, Rose Doyle, Secretary Peggy Morrissey and PRO Nan Banville. Maggie Morrissey, a founder member is still a very active member today and she made the tea at that first meeting. Monthly meetings were held in Camross Hall and still are, except during hall renovations when meetings were held in Old School in Caroreigh. Three months after its foundation the guild held its first Children’s Christmas party, it included a film, a concert, Santa visited, lemonade and crisps were served, I know because I was there. Question Times held with the local Macra na Feirme branch took place regularly to raise funds and the famous quiz master, the late Peter Murphy officiated on several occasions. Card Drives and jumble sales were held for several years to raise funds to buy beds for the local psychiatric hospital in Enniscorthy. and members collected at Church gates for mental health up to recently. The guild was certainly before their time where mental health was concerned.
The guild held its first Senior Citizens party in its foundation year and we still continue to the present day. Guild members cook and serve an entire Christmas Dinner to approx ninety people and provide entertainment augmented by some local talent. Bingo raffles and fashion shows were held to raise funds for these parties and in latter years we held Irish Nights in Rochford’s Lounge.
We also sent sick members of our local Community to Lourdes the with Ferns Diocesan Pilgrimage, having raised funds through Cabarets. Members of the guild would visit local geriatric hospitals monthly in those early years, whilst presently members visit in their own time but the entire guild will visit and provide entertainment in early January each year.
After meeting activities
In the early years ‘A Social Half Hour’ was the order of the day, eg. The Common Market, should a sensible girl marry a farmer, match making and there were many a heated debate on divorce and Saturday evening Mass. Today, we invite speakers from The Credit Union, Chiropodists, Geopathic Stress, Gardening, Making nettle soup, Making a Will, Names on fields in the half parish, Antiques and Women’s health, the list is endless.
Guild Competitions
These are keenly contested I might add, and have ranged from the funniest hat to nicest verse on a Christmas Card, Oldest Cookery Book to the highest heel on a stiletto and had to be modelled, funniest shaped potato to the longest ladder in a silk stocking, the best barm brack to the most items in a match box, the list goes
Community
Camross guild was the instigator for setting up Caroreigh Community Alert in 1991 and the committee are all ICA members to this day, thirty one years later. Seventeen members of the guild formed part of Camross Passion Play 2000, staged in Camross hall. Members formed the backbone of the choir, costumes, make up, made tea and held acting roles in the play itself and three Passion Plays later we are still deeply involved.
We hold an Ecumenical Service after our November meeting for deceased members and families. We fill Shoe Boxes for Team Hope and supply toiletries to Wexford Women’s Refuge. In 2001 we lost one of our young vibrant members, Ann power, in a car accident. Yearly since then we hold a Walk in her memory for various charities, this years walk in 2022 was in aid of Wexford’s Parkinsons Association.
Sport and Leisure
In those early years women were not seen walking the roads but now the Camross ICA ladies are to be seen walking regularly as are interested in keeping fit. We have climbed Croagh Patrick, the Sugar Loaf, climbed Camross Hill and sat on the ‘Mad Man’s Chair’, we even had an ICA meeting on Carrigbyrne Hill. We all climbed up to the Mass Rock, held our meeting, a local gentleman gave us the history of 1798 activities in the area and also gave a rendition of The Ballyshannon Lane and then we finished up with a picnic, of course.
We have had set dancing classes, line dancing, Irish dancing, Tap dancing, Sean Nos dancing and I think a few might have tried Belly dance in their younger years and we are presently trying to learn the art of Mumming which has a great tradition in the Camross area. We also engage in aqua aerobics, bowling and chair yoga, Age and Opportunity grants are a great help with funding and helps keep us all fit and healthy.
Competitions
We have been and still are one of the most competitive guilds in the county. The guild has been competing in Drama competitions from its foundation and have been successful in several All Ireland Finals. In 1990, we won the All Ireland Frend Variety competition held in the Mansion House, with two bus loads of local support there to cheer us on. Twenty one years later, we performed the same show with the same cast wearing the same costumes, (maybe a bit tighter), for our fiftieth anniversary in Camross Hall. We are the reigning ‘ICA has got Talent’ champions in Wexford Federation, we have also been successful in ‘Tops of the Parish’ and ‘Scor’ competitions. We have won the ‘Special Occasion’ and ‘AIB Guild of the Year’ competitions and the ‘Meithear’ on several occasions and of course we have a huge number of individual champions for different competitions in our guild. Camross guild hosted a number of competitions in its time but during Wexford’s term as National Competition Committee we hosted the National final of the Eleanora Gibbon competition for drama. Three members from Camross guild were part of that National committee.
Tours and Trips
You might say we are never at home, from Killarney to An Grianan, Wicklow to Aras an Uachtaran, Cork to Dublin, exchange trips with the Women’s Institute north of the border and also across to Wales, trips to musicals and of course our own beautiful county tops the list.
Classes
They would range from all types of art and craft classes, upholstery, music, pottery, dance, gardening, basketry, health and fitness, drama, flower arranging, yoga, interior design, rug making, poultry keeping, glove making, the list goes on
Members have Brannrai certs for jam and bread making, slipper and glove making, shell pictures, machrame, cake decoration plus lots more. Members have knitted caps and scarves for the Irish Heart Foundation, made scrubs for Nursing Homes during Covid, hold a coffee day annually for Wexford Hospice Homecare, make decorations for ICA Federation Remembrance Tree, we have written articles for our Parish Journal and one of our members, Mairead O’Gorman has recently published her book ‘Mr. And Mrs. Blue Tit’.
Guild Project
The guild constructed Camross ICA Rockery and garden in 2000 in the upper corner of Camross hall car park, we decided we would revamp it for our 60th anniversary. It’s absolutely beautiful and over the summer months, members planted, watered, wed and fed the plants and enjoyed a picnic or two there. We enter it annually in ‘Keep Wexford Beautiful’ competition with great success.
Conclusion
Camross ICA guild plays a vibrant part in our community, we are lucky to have Camross hall, Caroreigh Old School and Taghmon/Camross GAA complex at our disposal when required and we thank their committees. New members are always welcome to come and join us, we are a fun loving group and welcome new people with open arms. Our meetings are held in Camross Hall on the first Monday of each month except during July and August when the guild takes a break. Interested? Contact Breda Banville 0879270327 or bredabanville@gmail.com
The 2022/2023 committee are :
President: Mary Nolan
Vice President: Mary Kelly
Secretary: Margaret Nolan
Minute Secretary: Patricia Sweeney
Treasurer: Mary Farrell Kelly
PRO: Kay Doyle
Produce Promoter: Breda Banville
An Grianan Rep and Guest organiser: Peggy Doyle
Timire : Marian Donnelly
Competition Organiser: Ann O’Gorman
Arts and Crafts Promoter: Dympna Kelly
Prize organiser: Alice Whitty.
This is 61 years of Camross ICA in a nutshell, Thank God for the Minute Books.
We thank our founders and let us always remember them.
Breda Banville.