Eye - 04 September 2015

From embroidery and fashion to Meeting unity

Quaker embroidery and fashion

The Friend who convened the first Quaker Meeting in Ireland, in 1654, was celebrated in a week-long William Edmundson Homecoming event at the end of July (see ‘First Irish Quaker celebrated’, 7 August).

The Homecoming saw a wide range of activities: from singing, poetry and readings through to the unveiling of an unusual dress.

Described as ‘a fusion of contemporary design with the charm of Mountmellick embroidery’, the dress is the result of a collaboration between fashion design Heidi Higgins and Dolores Dempsey, master practitioner of Mountmellick embroidery.

Mountmellick embroidery dates back to 1825 and is credited to Johanna Carter, who used locally produced materials and designs symbolising the Quaker heritage of the town.

The Mountmellick Development Association (MDA) invited Heidi to unify the traditional craft with her modern design.

The dress has been made in metallic gold and white lame fabric to reflect the cotton sateen, which has a sheen, and the matte cotton threads which are traditionally used in Mountmellick embroidery.

Dolores created a floral and butterfly motif for the collar design and sleeves. It is hoped that the dress will introduce a new generation to this traditional craft.

The dress was unveiled on 24 July at the MDA Museum and is currently on display to its visitors. The MDA Museum’s main focus is to conserve and display original pieces of Mountmellick embroidery and to protect the memory of Mountmellick’s rich Quaker industrial past.

Cornish greats revisited

A dozen years on and a Plymouth newspaper is revisiting a list of Cornwall’s ‘100 greatest men and women’ – a list that includes a Quaker from the seventeenth century.

The Western Morning News ran the original poll to find ‘the greatest Cornish people of all time’ in 2003.

It began as a gentle rebuke to the BBC’s ‘Top 100 Great Britons’ – which didn’t include a single person from the county.

Staff are now keen to find out if readers still agree with the original choices.

Quaker Loveday Hambly was at number ninety-eight in 2003.

The newspaper describes her as a ‘religious campaigner from St Tudy known as the “Quaker Saint of Cornwall”, [who] was jailed for refusing to pay church tax’.

The original poll was topped by Richard Trevithick, who pioneered the use of high pressure steam, drained the silver mines of Peru and invented the first road locomotive.

Poet and historian A L Rowse is also included, as is Humphry Davy, inventor of the eponymous safety lamp.

Meeting Unity

Gathering Silence
Settling Stillness
Becoming Calm
Increasing Awareness
Seeking At-oneness
Feeling Compassion
Realising Anger
Outpouring Love
Collective Action

Terry Oakley

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