Needlework 

Flax farming and linen manufacturing were iconic to the industrialisation of the North of Ireland, particularly in the eighteenth century.

A handkerchief is a sign of grieving and hankies were traditionally exchanged between loved ones as heartfelt goodbye gifts.

The hand embroidery of the names continues day-by-day.

 Embroiderers around the world:

Allen, Edith

Arney, Suzanne Smith

Barman, Margaret

Bernett, Kathy

Biro, Jean 

Boni, Maria

Colleary, Máirín

Damon, Margot

Garofalo, Gen

Global Volunteers to Corrymeela, June 08

Manwaring, Lyn

McRobb, Jan

Molloy, Janet

Morriott, Edith

Murphy, Lizz

Osborne, Jean

Richmond Benson, Glenys

Richmond Benson, Nerida

Russell, Janet

Spielman, Lucy McCarthy

  

Trouton, Maureen

       

Tenant, Alex

       

Young, Jennifer

 

ADDITIONAL

For human interest, I have added details about The Embroiders and their cherished connections to Northern Ireland/Ireland, and/or heartfelt links regarding Irish migration. I thank each of them for their time-consuming crafting and sincere volunteer contribution to the memory of those killed in The Troubles.

       

The history of embroidery can also be 'read' from the standpoint of the history of women as Artists and Craftspersons, high/low arts practice and the construction of 'The Feminine': see G. Pollock and R. Parker The Subversive Stitch,  1984. Therefore, for some, I have told a little bit about each woman’s life because these details illustrate the complexity of contemporary womanhood and their creative practice, combined with their modern professional and family lives.

       

‘Sewing bees’ also have a long history -- embroidery and conversation (including aspects of social critique and social confirmity) or oral history/cultural history & the maintenance of kinship links to Ireland/N. Ireland can be seen to be inter-linked.

       

These acknowledgements   are almost complete and have been  updated since returning from N. Ireland ’s Day of Private Reflection, 2008.

USA Global Volunteers to Corrymeela, 2008

Edith Allen, Belfast; retired seamstress, mother and grandmother; her extended family and friends have been affected by The Troubles of North Belfast.

Kathy Bernett, Expert Needleworker, Craftswoman, retired administrator, lives in Michigan, USA. Recently found her Irish family heritage and has been with Global Volunteers.

Máirín Colleary, Leader of Global Volunteers to Glencree and Corrymeela. She learned stitching as a child in Ireland. Lives in Dublin. 
Committee Member of Living Museum sub-group, Healing through Remembering, Belfast.

Sisters Margot Damon, London ,  U.K.(retired Home Economics professional) & (retired Special Ed. Teacher) Maureen Trouton, Vancouver , B.C. Canada , (née McGladdery; b. Belfast , 1930s).

Sisters Nerida Richmond Benson
(Quilt Designer and retired Physician) &
Glenys Richmond Benson (expert Needlewoman and Cake Decorator, retired Nurse), Leura, NSW, Australia .

Expert Needlewoman, Mother/Grandmother Edith Morriott, Berridale, New South Wales, Australia .

Textile Artist and retired Graphic Designer/Lecturer (currently engaged in anthropological research) Jan McRobb, Vancouver , B.C., Canada (whose mother was from N. Ireland )

Artist/Expert Needlewoman/Educator, Maria Boni, Vancouver , B.C., Canada Canada.      
Maria states: "Growing up, my mother always told me that she wanted to be Irish because they were a lot of fun!The Irish and the Italians got along well in Montreal in the 1940s."

Dr. Jean Biro (PhD, Educator-Consultant for Hearing Impaired) and friends from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (this acknowledgement will be updated soon. My apologies to these Canadian volunteers).

Textile designer & retired Occupational Therapist, mother/grandmother:
Mrs. Margaret Barman, (b. Newtownstewart, grew up in Omagh, County Tyrone , N.I.) in Beecroft (since 1957), NSW, Australia .

Sculptor/Artist/Healer Lyn Manwaring (expert needlewoman) of Binalong, near Yass, NSW, Australia . Lyn is currently engaged in a creative embroidery project of her own based on the illuminated letters in The Book of Kells, inspired by an exhibition at the National Art Gallery in Canberra , ACT.

  

Friends Suzanne Smith Arney (grandmother & great grandfather from Omagh, County Tyrone , N. Ireland ). Art Historian and ‘textile art’ or fibre Artist, & friend

Lucy McCarthy Spielman, whose paternal great-grandfather came from Skibbereen, Co. Cork and both maternal grandparents came from Co. Sligo, Ireland.

Members of the Irish Book club, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.

  

Friends Janet Molloy (Janet's husband's family is from Downpatrick and Ballynahinch, County Down , N. Ireland ) and

Jean Osborne and

Janet Russell of Birmingham, England .

All: Friends of Corrymeela & U.K. Embroiderer's Guild.

       

Jennifer Young from Maghera, S. Derry. BFA (the art of textiles 2006)N. Ireland. Contemporary Northern Ireland Artist (main love: drawn threadwork on table linen); Educator.

       

Alex Tenant. Belfast , N. Ireland Ireland. Peace and Charity policy writer-researcher.

 

These acknowledgements have been  updated in August  since returning from N. Ireland’s Day of Private Reflection, 2008.  Please email me if there are any errors that I have overlooked; thank you for your patience as I am only learning web-site design/uplocading, and my academic and artwork is my main preoccupation and these are in career-transition. Lycia

Resources

There are artistic precedents of large-scale public community needlework projects for commemoration, non-violence & peace.

For example, wartime quilts and the contemporary Ribbon-Around-the-Pentagon  organised by Justine Merritt; The Crystal Quilt directed by Suzanne Lacy, USA, mid-1980s; The Dinner Party by sculptor Judy Chicago, USA, 1970s, and The Parliamentary House Embroidery designed by tapestry artist Kay Lawrence, OAM & completed by the Embroiderers' Guilds of Australia, 1988; Goldsmiths Prof. Janet Jefferies and the 'textile arts' fence at Greenham Common, 1984; Roses-from-the-Heart, the 2007 Australian bonnet project by artist Christina Henri, MCA, commemorating the passage of women convicts.

The legacy of Saidie Patterson, Belfast Peace Activist well-known for her work with mixed communities of working-class women, first female Linen & Textiles Trade Unionist, Saidie Patterson (1906 - 1985), is an inspiration for The Linen Memorial.