Tuesday, October 6, 2009

ANGRY ELDERLY KNITTERS TO KNIT HAIR SHIRT FOR CEANN COMHAIRLE



BY NOIRIN CAWLEY (http://newsfromireland-quirkynews.blogspot.com)


A west of Ireland-based group of elderly knitters angered that its Community Development Grant was cut in the last budget is to knit a special hairshirt for underfire Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue.

The Ballinaskeagh Knitters Group which aims to combat isolation among elderly rural women had been in operation using a €5,000 Community development Grant but this was cut in this year's Emergency Budget.

Now the angry group are to knit a special hair shirt to be sent to the Ceann Comhairle to make the point that one of his trips at the races cost as much as their grant.

Maisie Corcoran who heads up the knitting group said that the amount of money that they received in a grant was the amount that he would spend in an afternoon.

"The amount of money that keep our group going for three years was the same amount of money that he spent at Longchamps. We have 16 women who had not been out of their homes for many years before this programme came along and then it was cut.

"Now we can all accept that we have had to tighten our belts, but when you see the expenditure by this man, it makes us all very angry.

"So this week, we decided to use goat hair and knit a special hairshirt as a symbol of what he should be wearing and of our anger.

"We will be travelling to Dublin to present this to him at the Dail and we will see if he has gall enough to come out and take it from us," she said, adding that the grant cut had devastate

"We met twice a week for knitting and a chat and it was great because it gave us all a chance to get out and about and contribute something to the community

"It enabled people who had been out of society for many years to renew their skills and then it was all dashed by people like Mr O Donoghue. Just one month of his state car would pay for us to keep going for two years," she said.

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