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Slaney Country Market

Slaney Country Market

Monday 14 November 2011

Every Saturday morning in the heart Bunclody a group of dedicated ladies gather to sell their food and artistic produce at the Slaney Country Market. Bunclody is a very pictueresque town in itself, in North County Wexford on the Co. Carlow border. It is an area which always reminds me somehow of Germany’s Black Forest region with its wonderful trees and woods, and it is very popular with people who enjoy walking and fishing as it is on the banks of the River Slaney and in the shadows of Mount Leinster.

The Slaney Country Market is located in the Old Barracks, a beautiful Georgian building, right on the square, in the centre of the town, with very convenient parking in front. The Country Market concept differs from that of the currently popular Farmer’s Markets in that it is a co-op. All of the artists and producers are present but they do not sell their produce individually as such. Nobody pushes their own stuff, no names appear, all of the produce is sold together, with each producer’s items carrying an identification number, and it is a more ‘one for all and all for one’ ethos. At the end of the month each member gets a cheque for their produce. Country Markets Ltd www.countrymarkets.ie was founded in 1946 by the Irish Homespun Society and the Irish Countrywomen’s Association with the object, by co-operative means, of marketing good fresh quality farm, garden, home produce, and traditional crafts using natural resources, aiming to enhance in a small way the family income. There are now some 60 Branches around the country.

Helga Faiers Mullen, was an instigator in setting up the Slaney branch, and she has an interesting Flemish Heugenot background. Her ancestors came to England in the 17thC as silk weavers, with her great great grandfather later moving to Ireland. Helga and her husband, Willie, had been living in Tinahely, Co. Wicklow, but downsized a few years ago to Kildavin which they love. However, there was no shop in Kildavin village so Helga called a public meeting to see if they could set up a branch of Irish Country Markets which they later moved to Bunclody. “We opened on Valentine’s Day 2009 and ‘Love your Area Love your Country Market’ was our slogan. 10% of the sales is retained by the Market. If you make a soda bread for €1 you can charge €2 for it so the market retains 20c of that towards our rent, so you can imagine our funds are very limited. We also give to St. Vincent de Paul at Christmas and in the summer we have a Community BBQ giving profits, usually to our local Hospice. This summer a wild life garden was created in Kildavin where a former ball alley had been demolished and we paid for all the cobblestones that were going into that. So we give a lot to charity.” I had joined the ladies sitting around the community tea table, which is just such a sociable experience. Tea is €2. “A lot of the food is donated so we keep the tea money towards our E.S.B. bill.” “We have great craic”, joins in Jane Beere, Interior Designer, who also makes a wonderful range of chilli jams and conserves, amazing brownies and cookies, “its all about friendship – any excuse to get together.” Kathleen Ryan produces wonderful vegetables grown in Kildavin - couldn’t be fresher or more local and traceable. “Some women are sending their children to piano lessons with what they make, it may only be about €40 a month for some but it is the overall experience and friendship.” Says Helga. There are good news stories from here too. People move on to do bigger things as a result of being here. Helga was formerly Secretary of the Branch and helped set it up but now just drops in every week as she is writing a book about growing up in Dublin in the 1950’s and 1960’s. “My father was a Protestant, and my Mother was a Catholic. I was brought up as a Catholic in a Protestant household and in the 60’s that was huge. My grandmother was a great character. She never got over the fact that her only son married a Catholic.”

Marigold Tuazon is from the Philippines and living in nearby Tullow, Co. Carlow, where her husband has been working in TE Envirolabs for the past ten years. Marigold is a Bio Chemist but with a four year old daughter she is a stay at home mom at the moment. However, she makes wonderfully cute and pretty little hairclips, hairbands and slides, using petersham ribbon, priced around from €3.50/€4. They are just so artistic, little black and amber bumble bees, red and black ladybirds, butterflys, floral, and funky. Rachel Gilsenan does wonderful imaginative knitting. “I started knitting when my sister had a baby and I did some things for her.” There was a really gorgeous teddy bear at €12 and a little elephant at €8, hats, scarves, amazing little blankets for €10 – you wouldn’t buy the wool - all beautifully detailed which would make wonderful Christmas and Christening presents. They are totally individual and special. They also have wonderful handmade cards produced by three different makers, Grace Dunbar, Stephanie Murphy and Rebecca Homfrey.

Rebecca Homfrey is originally from Kent but has lived in Ireland for 23 years. She is an amazing print maker who also does Botanical water colours. Her work is quite exquisite, from her ‘Thieving Magpie’ to her ‘Fighting Cocks’, I wanted to come home with them all. Some of these large scale limited edition prints were only €100. “The printing and the painting I took up later in life. I always loved it at school but then didn’t do anything for ages. I started the painting first and then I joined the Leinster Printmaking Studio in Clane. That has been great and I have been going great guns ever since.” Rebecca’s work features in a gorgeous book of recipes and drawings called ‘Plate to Plate’ from the Leinster Printmaking Studio. Rebecca’s work sells now all over the world – “it is so easy to put them into an envelope and send them off.” Her take on ‘The Sacred Heart’ was fascinating. “Coming to Ireland and seeing all those Sacred Heart pictures in houses all over the place was new to me. I was a bit taken aback because everyone used to talk about the Aztecs and the brutality but then you see those pictures of Jesus with his heart exposed and you think there is not very much difference.”

Margaret Dunbar is Chairperson of Slaney Country Market. Margaret took up cross-stitch work in 1995 when she was confined to bed through illness. “My sister-in-law bought me a kit and I just started from there and then I did tapestry.” There was the most amazing imperious cushion of an Egyptian figure, all handmade and beautiful, for just €25. These crafts are just truly a labour of love and something to be snapped up. “The beauty of this type of work,” Margaret says, “is that it is light and you can carry your sampler with you as you work.”

The Christmas Market is now running at Slaney Country Market on Saturday mornings from 10 am to 1 pm - get there early for best choice. You will find wonderful homemade breads of all varieties, including Polish bread by Danuta Tunkun, who also does dressmaking and sells wonderful handmade willow baskets made by her family in Poland. There are cakes, jams, honey, marmalade, chilli jam, preserves, pretty aprons, handmade cards, prints, watercolours, knitted toys, vegetables, and many really special individual and inexpensive items for Christmas gifts.

Check out www.countrymarkets.ie for your local Country Market where I have no doubt you will come across an equally interesting diverse and inclusive group of producers and artists.