It was an honour to open talented textile artist Ciara Harrison’s Exhibition ‘Shadowed Women’ in Limerick’s Hunt Museum. Ciara’s portraits of the seven widows of the 1916 Easter Rising have an ethereal and almost ghostly quality.
Her charcoal drawings and embroidered layers in black cotton organdie, although seeming fragile, give a unique perspective to these often forgotten women. The portraits include sisters Grace and Muriel Gifford, Maud Gonne, Kathleen Clark, Agnes Mallin, Aine Ceannt, and Lily Connolly.
‘Shadowed Women’ was commissioned by The Little Museum of Dublin and is on view at The Hunt Museum until the end of August. Downstairs in The Hunt Museum, artist Robert Ballagh’s 1916 Centennial Reflection Exhibition ‘A Terrible Beauty’ is also on show until 28th August 2016.
Both exhibitions are well worth a visit over the summer in this wonderful museum!
From Limerick, I travelled down to the Ardmore Pattern Festival in Waterford, which this year is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. The sun was shining and huge crowds turned out for the week of varied events.
Saturday morning started with a big gang of young readers coming along to meet me at the school, with their books, ideas and questions.
Later on the venue was the 300 year old St Paul’s Church, which was the perfect setting to discuss and talk about history, 1916 and my book Rebel Sisters to a wonderful group of history enthusiasts and book lovers.
It was such sad news to hear of Robert’s death. The world of children’s books will certainly not be the same without him. He will be terribly missed by both writers and readers alike. 
What an emotional experience to see 
The Ulster American Folk Park is a great place to stage it, as I as visited it to research my books. The Park now holds Hawthorn Days in the spring.
The celebrations continue as it – alongside 
Happy Christmas to all and wishing you a bright new year in 2016!
Marita Conlon-McKenna 