The Stitch Up

Mountmellick, Ireland

Well, this post was a bit delayed as my laptop at home bit the dust.  I've been using a really old Dell laptop while the Hubby is traveling with our Mac and the Dell just couldn't keep up with me.  I'm toying with the idea of buying another Mac so that Hubby and I have our own dependable laptops, but in the meantime I am stealing a few moments here and there on my iPhone, or when I just have to have a full screen - at work.  (I swear I only blog on my break!)

I have been anxious to post about what was my favorite part of our trip to Ireland.  I had seen Mountmellick embroidery described and seen the technique discussed in books, but at some point I came across an article describing the town in Ireland where this technique developed.  The history behind the town of Mountmellick and the development of this specific type of embroidery is so interesting and, once we planned our trip to Ireland, I decided to see about scheduling a class to learn this technique!

Mountmellick, Ireland is a small town in County Laois (pronounced "Leash") in central Ireland.  This town was settled by Quakers - which I found so interesting considering the impact Quakers have had on so many areas in the U.S..  These hard working people established several industries including breweries, distilleries, woolen mills, cotton mills, tanneries and glass factories.  The site I linked to has a ton of information on the town that is - in my opinion - fascinating.  Mountmellick in the 19th century was apparently a boomtown and known as the "Manchester" of Ireland.  The industry that the Quakers established was not their only contribution.  As is true of their history here in the U.S., this group of people was well known for their efforts to reform such institutions as slavery, education and the prison system.  They were also instrumental in famine relief during the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s. 

In addition to being an interesting town with a ton of history, it's also a pretty area with great people.

I borrowed this pic from the Mountmellick site linked to above as I did not have time to take many photos while in Mountmellick.  I was too busy with embroidery!

The cotton mills in Mountmellick in the 19th century seem to have set part of the background for the development of Mountmellick embroidery, as well as the desire to create employment for local women.  My instructor for the day, Collette, told me that the white on white embroidery being done in France and other areas was very popular at the time.  Mountmellick embroidery was created as a way to capitalize on the that popularity while using the more practical fabric of white cotton jean - which was readily available in Mountmellick - and embroidered with cotton thread.  The method is similar to crewel work, however the patterns are distinctive - inspired by nature and with several stitches that are specific only to Mountmellick embroidery:

(This photo is from the embroiderers guild web site.)

The class was very easy to set up.  They are arranged through the Mountmellick Development Association which can arrange group classes or individual classes.  As we were there for a short vacation (and the Hubby was not interested in taking the class) I scheduled an individual class and so had the undivided attention of my instructor Collette (which I think I needed.)

Collette started by teaching me three stitches that are specific to Mountmellick embroidery and without which a piece can not truly be considered a Mountmellick piece: the Mountmellick stitch, the Cable Plait stitch and the Thorn stitch.

I really liked Collette's teaching style.  She demonstrated the stitches for me and then allowed me to practice them for awhile.  Then, instead of providing a pattern that told me that a specific stitch was required here or there, she gave me a pattern and allowed me to choose how I would use the stitches she'd taught me:

We went through the extensive collection of Mountmellick work in the museum and she showed me how other stitchers had used the various embroidery designs in their work.  It was really inspirational.  All of these projects - some from over two hundred years ago - were white on white, using the same collection of stitches, and yet they were so different.

It was a wonderful afternoon!  I left with some new techniques, a great appreciation for the history and heritage of Mountmellick and some fantastic memories.  I am very grateful that these women (especially Collette!) take the time to teach and pass on a beautiful technique to interested strangers. 

I hope I'll have a finished project to share with you soon although Christmas project have been taking up a bunch of time lately.  I'll try to post a round up of our Fall activities soon and then after that it's all posts about Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that preparations for Christmas are going well!

Belfast

Whoo!  I had intended to post the second part of our trip to Ireland right after I wrote about Dublin but then I got just a wee bit distracted by fun and outings with the Hubby.  But I'm back now!  Ready for more Irish adventures? Here we go!

After a few days in Dublin we took the train to Belfast.  It's a beautiful and easy train ride of only two hours between the two cities.  But, when you arrive, you realize that you are technically in another country.  Belfast is in Northern Ireland which is part of the U.K., while Dublin is part of the independent country of Ireland.  So while we had lots of euros to burn from or time in Dublin, we had to trade them in for pound notes for our time in Belfast.  We also noticed that instead of the Irish flag, the union jack was flying everywhere.  It's a city that is pulled in a lot of directions, but we really enjoyed it.

After dropping off our bags we took a little meander about the city stopping first in the center of the city in front of the Belfast City Hall.  (above).  It's a beautiful building but as is often our luck when we travel, the building has been under renovation for the last year and wasn't reopening until a week after we left.  Boo!  Well, we enjoyed it from the outside at least.  Our next stop was St. Anne's Cathedral.  St. Anne's is a Protestant church.  See if you can tell from the following photos of the interior of the church what the Protestant tip off is:

If you noticed the British flags hanging around the church - congratulations, you identified the Protestant tip off!  St. Anne's is beautiful inside and lovely outside as well. 

 We also checked out the Catholic cathedral in Belfast, St. Peters, however they had services in session at that time so we were only able to see the outside:

 We thought Belfast was a very pretty city with lots of lovely sights wherever you walked. 

The following photo is the Albert Memorial Clock - built to commemorate Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert - which for obvious reasons has a very British feel.  Also, if my photo looks a little crooked, it's actually the clock itself which leans about 4 feet due to being built on marshy land near the river:

 

I liked the lions around the base of the clock:

Our hotel was in the Queens University area which is really nice.  There are lots of great restaurants, plus the University itself and the adjacent Botanic Garden are beautiful and very relaxing to wander through:

 

 

It's really a lovely area!

The main reason we wanted to see Belfast is, having read so much about The Troubles, over the years, we thought it would be interesting to see how the city has changed.  But we also wanted to learn more about the history of the Protestant v. Catholic conflict that raged through that area for so long.

To visit Belfast today, you would not immediately guess at the city's history or at the problems that continue to plague the area.  We took one of Belfast's Black Taxi cab tours which takes you through the Protestant/Loyalist area and the Catholic/Republican area and found out that we were staying only a couple blocks away from the heart of the neighborhoods that have been torn apart by violence. 

Once it was explained to us, it was very easy to figure out what neighborhood we were in.  Protestant/Loyalist neighborhoods not only fly the Union Jack on every corner, they also paint their curbs red, white and blue - the colors of the British flag:

Both sides have painted these murals on the side of buildings that tell their side of the conflict and often commemorate friends and family who were killed by the other side.  This one was also in the Loyalist area:

These next murals were in the Catholic/Republican area.  They reflect other instances of political violence through history and in other areas of the world - you'll see a copy of Picasso's "Guernica" for instance:
 
 

I will say, that while I don't think there's anyway I could possibly understand all that is behind this conflict I am somewhat sympathetic to the Catholic side, if only because they are such a small segment of Belfast in comparison to the Loyalists.  However, these murals were a little irritating as they equate the Catholic troubles in Ireland to what they perceive has been done to the Palestinians by Israel or what they claim the US is doing to cause Cubans to currently suffer.  (Notice the requisite mural of Che Guevara.)  They lost me a little here, as these are vastly different issues and anytime someone holds up Che Guevara as a hero I assume they are an idiot.  Despite that however, both sides have clearly suffered due to this conflict and it still continues.  A local Catholic would never be able to safely go into the Protestant neighborhood and vice versa.  This is especially crazy as these are small neighborhoodds of just a few blocks and they are right next to each other, separated only by a street in most cases.  Due to the violence over the years they have had to build walls through some of these streets to separate the two neighborhoods and prevent them from throwing explosives or even just rocks into each others yards and homes.  Some of the walls are still up to maintain safety even though it's ten years since the peace agreement was signed:
 
 

I'm sure that things continue to improve in Northern Ireland, although our guide told us that two soldiers had been killed only 6 months ago, right before their unit went to Afghanistan, as part of the Protestant/Catholic conflict.  But over all, it's a city that is beautiful and friendly and great fun.  And I actually applaud them for bringing a difficult history out in the open - I think it can only help everyone move toward the future. 

As a farewell to my post on Belfast, here are a few random photos I took around the neighborhoods where we walked and toured.  There really are pretty things to see on every corner in Belfast:

 
 I don't know if it's despite it's difficult history or because of it, but the Hubby and I really enjoyed Belfast.  It's a great city with wonderful people and I would recommend that anyone going to Ireland include it in their visit.

Our train trip back to Dublin was a tour in itself - the countryside is so beautiful the train ride flew by!

 
 Every view out the window was a postcard picture!

Ireland was awesome.  I'm going to do a quick post next about a day trip I took to Mountmellick for an embroidery class.  I'll get that up faster than the Belfast post - I promise!
 
 
 
 
 

Dublin

Hey All!  

I have indeed been missing from the blog but I have a good excuse: I took a trip!  The hubby and I set off to see a wee bit of Ireland (that's my attempt at an Irish accent!) and had a great time.  The only down side of the trip - it was not long enough!  We spent a couple of days in Dublin and a couple days in Belfast and saw as much as we could fit into our quickie vacay!  

First up - Dublin.  What a pretty city!  We stayed in a quiet area near St. Stephens Green (a lovely park) but we were able to make our way on foot to most of the city.

The leaves were starting to turn in the park and it was such a pretty fall afternoon!  Although, there were still of bright flowers:

 

Our tour guide told us that the park ranger lives in this little house inside the park.  I hope it's true as I think this would pretty much be a perfect existence!

 

We wandered out of the park and into Grafton Street - which is a great area for shopping although I mostly just snapped photos:

From Grafton Street we headed to Temple Bar which is a great neighborhood of bars and restaurants and had lunch at a place called "Elephant and Castle".  I ate some yummy locally raised Hereford steak (which I would feel a little guilty about a few days later when we passed through the fields full of beautiful cows on the train) and generally relaxed into the pace of Dublin:

 

 

From Temple Bar we were right near the River Liffey (which flows through the middle of the city of Dublin) so we wandered over and had a cup of coffee by the water:

 

 

 

There are obviously several bridges across the Liffey throughout Dublin - but that last photo is of the Ha'penney bridge (which is short for half penney which was once the charge to cross the bridge) but according to my guide book - this bridge has come to be a symbol of Dublin.

All along our walk I noticed these street lamps which are just so cool:

 

I love the shamrocks!

One of our days in Dublin we took the requisite double decker bus tour.  As I've said in the past - these bus tours might be a bit cheesy, but they are always the best and often the cheapest way to see the highlights of a city and get your bearings.  We hopped off the bus at Christ Church Cathedral as this is a place I was really looking forward to seeing!

 

We went below the cathedral to the crypt which was cool and very interesting although when I heard "crypt" I was hoping for something a little creepier!

We hopped off at a few other places - including the Jameson's Whiskey distillery - which may explain why we didn't have energy to see everything that was available on the tour.  One of the places that looked truly beautiful and I would love to spend some time in the next time we're in Ireland is Phoenix Park.  It houses the Dublin zoo, the President's house, some gorgeous flower gardens and a monument to Wellington:

 

It is the second tallest obelisk in the world - the first tallest of course is????? The Washington monument here in DC.  So I guess now we should figure out where the third tallest obelisk is and add that to our travel list since we seem to have started a trend without even knowing it!

We had great food in Dublin including a Guinness stew that I intend to try and recreate here at home and of course we had wonderful beer!  After Dublin we were on to Belfast and I'll post some pics of our visit there next - it was just as beautiful and interesting as Dublin and I hope you'll enjoy it!