THE PROCESS:

Story Collecting

In November 2018 we issued a call to people living in County Louth to come along and share their favourite story about where they live – their street, their town, their county – to help us capture stories of particular relevance to County Louth and the people who live here.
At these story collecting session we engaged story facilitator, Ali Warner, and illustrator. Geraldine Martin, to record and capture the key themes and topics. These were then translated into a large scale image to be embroidered onto a panel of Irish linen as a collaborative endeavour.

Bayeux Stitch

On Saturday 24 November Agnieszka (Uisce) Jakubczyk, textile and embroidery specialist, led a workshop to teach the Bayeux stitches needed to create this embroidered wall hanging tapestry. The style of embroidery used is most closely related to that of crewelwork – there are about seven or eight basic stitches which are used to make this type of tapestry. The workshop was very well attended and each participant completed a small embroidered linen panel on the day.

Stitching Sessions

On 10 December we started! Assisted and supervised by textile artist Úna Curley, the mammoth task of embroidering the panel began. Over the days, weeks and months since, over thirty women (and a few brave men) have come in to complete the project, stitch by stitch…

The Stitchers

Ciara Agnew
Petra Berntsson
Meabh Breathnach
Briege Brennan
Gabrielle Brodigan
Rosemary Daly
Jacinta Dillon
Sally-Ann Duffy
Susan Farrelly
Bernhard Gaul
Colleen Hardy
Brenda Kane
Olive Kelledy
Marie Kelly
Blanche Kirk
Karolina Kragiel
Alistair Livingstone
Winnie Markey
Jean Marshall
Claire McAteer Conway
Mary McGarrell
Eileen McGoey
Kathleen Mulholland
Elish Murphy
Gráinne Murphy
Jebun Nahar
Caoimhe O’Dwyer
Rhona O’Hagan
Cathy Prendergast
Sandra Quigley
Liz Reilly
Ursula Tennyson
Gillian Tennyson
Dagmar Triller
Francis Verling
Aoife Verling

Facilitators

Úna Curley
Sarah Daly
Agnieszka (Uisce) Jakubczyk
Geraldine Martin
Ali Warner