Ballyoughter ICA Guild

The Mission Statement of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association states that its objectives are “to bring women together in fellowship and through co-operative effort, to develop and improve the standard of rural and urban life in Ireland having due regard for our Irish culture and to encourage the use of the Irish language in the affairs of Bantracht na Tuaithe.”

The ICA has certainly lived up to its mission statement since its inception in 1910 by County Wexford woman Anita Lett from Bree. The original organisation was called the Society of United Irishwomem (UI). This was changed in 1935 to its current incarnation, the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). The ICA has provided an outlet for women in Ireland, both urban and rural, to come together for the purpose of improving their daily lives through education, training, and cooperative learning all in a spirit of fun, camaraderie, and friendship.

The organisation was ground-breaking in the early 20^th century and played a pivotal role in the emancipation of women from the stereotyping by state and church of the role played by them in Irish society. You could imagine the conversations held in some homes around the country when the ‘woman of the house’ told her husband that she was joining an organisation that would see her away from the family home on a few evenings a month. The responses would have ranged from fully supportive to being told ‘your place is in the home’.

ICA Guilds were slowly but steadily established across the country and today there are 440 guilds with some 8,000 members. In the 50s, the organisation was at the forefront of promoting the electrification of rural Ireland in conjunction with the ESB. The drive for universal access to safe drinking water was an objective of the work in the 60s. Throughout the decades, the ICA has promoted women’s interests and community and family values in the development of local and national policies while always affording its members opportunities for training, education, and convivial social interaction.

An Grianán, ‘The Sanctuary’, was ‘gifted’ to the ICA by a benefactor and opened in 1954 by the President of Ireland, Seán T. O’Ceallaigh. It is the ICA centre for education, training, skills, relaxation, and personal development.

Read more about the Irish Countrywomen’s Association on the ICA website, its Facebook Page, and An Grianán.