:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/WRRGQ5M7CNFCY7YATCFBBG7H2E.jpg)
A PRESIDENTIAL secret was shared last night with the 300 women gathered to celebrate the centenary of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) in Dublin Castle.
They were told by President Mary McAleese she had just about every modern electrical convenience which could be purchased for a modern kitchen.
And each time she switched on a microwave or oven, she thought of her grandmother who was deprived of the gift of electricity by her grandfather. Her grandfather, she said, when approached to take electricity into the house, had proclaimed it “the devil’s own curse”.
He also, she told the laughing women, had said it would “never catch on”. To the day she died, her grandmother had been forced to “cook on the crane”, that is the open fire.
Because of that, she said, she always thought of them both when she switched on the labour-saving devices in her home powered by electricity, which the ICA had brought to many homes because of its support for the rural electricity scheme.
The President was in sparkling form and “among her own” when she addressed the representatives of the ICA in St Patrick’s Hall, in the castle where they had gathered to open the year-long celebration of their centenary.
The organisation had been founded 100 years ago in May by Anita Lett from Wexford and the huge attendance included her grandchildren.
ICA president Anna Marie Dennis outlined the causes which had been promoted by the organisation since its foundation a century ago.
They included the call for better healthcare, electricity for all homes in the State and a host of other issues which had impacted on women’s lives down the century.
Ms Dennis praised the work which had been done down the years but said she felt not enough women were represented in the places where there was real power.
She told the attendance, which included the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Emer Costello, they had shaped Irish society like a sculpture and without the input of volunteers such as them, society would be in another ice age.