TC/1031

Beragh WI celebrates its golden jubilee

Reflecting on the activities of the past half century
Over the past 50 years, members of Beragh WI have taken part in many events and many friendships have begun and endured.
The WI was instigated when Mrs. W. Bell, from the Bank louse, organised the preliminary meeting in March 1952. Mrs. Mercer. Northern Ireland organising secretary, was invited to Beragh to explain how to go bout setting up a branch of the W.I.
A date was decided on for the formation meeting, the venue being the Hutton School, Beragh. It was agreed that regular meetings would be held on the first Friday of each month. This continued until October 1960, when it was changed the first Monday of the month.
Mrs. Mercer presented the meeting with six cans of honey which had been donated by a W.I. in New South Wales. It was agreed that these should be used for prizes. The first president was Mrs. W. Bell, with the committee comprising Mrs. J. Anderson, Mrs. M. Bell, Miss E.
Creighton, Miss S. D. Creighton, Mrs. Doonan, Miss J. Hutton, Mrs. McGonigle, Mrs. T. J. McLaren and Mrs. C. Sloan.
In those early days, members brought food for the meetings and coal to obtain heat from a Stanley range. Membership cost just two shillings a year.
In 1973, the WI moved meetings to the Johnston Memorial Hall as the numbers increased. It has continued to meet there, except for the period between March 1993 and September 1995, while it was being renovated.
The first outing in July 1953 was to Donegal and on to Buncrana, with a stop in Moville where lunch in a hotel cost the princely sum of 6/6d, the equivalent of 32p approximately.
Birthday
Every March a party was held to celebrate the birthday of the W.I. One year it was decided to have a meal and members rose to the occasion as usual and provided a beautiful spread of cooked meats and salads, followed by delicious home made sweets. This was eaten in the classroom at the small children's desks.
There were cake sales, coffee evenings and so on to augment funds and many more activities down the years, one of these being a collection for the Flood Disaster Fund in March 1953 in Eastern England where lives and property were lost. With 22 collections from the W.I. the sum of £355-1-6 was raised.
One highlight of the early years was the first fashion show put on by Clarkes of Enniskillen in 1966. Many trips were made to Clarke's shop by the president and secretary, before all was finalised. As well as professional models, some W.I. members and their families had an opportunity to show their modelling skills. The men did not escape either, as husbands were press-ganged into service to help build a cat walk and Cloughfin Hall was packed to capacity. The late Duchess of Abercorn was present.
In the mid 60s, there were so many people wanting to join that there was a proposal to start a waiting list. From October 1967 to February 1968, just like last year, there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, when meetings were suspended.
For the 21st anniversary in 1973, members had a dinner dance to which husbands and friends were invited.
Another memorable event was the dance held in Cloughfin Hall on December 23, 1974, which was organised by Marion Moffett. This was advertised as old time and modem dancing with an entrance fee of 50p and for an extra lOp, a cup of tea and a sandwich could be purchased. This event realised the sum of £191.33. One half of this went to a charity and the other half helped finance our institute for a number of years.
For the silver anniversary in 1977, memebrs had a party with the tables decorated with silver candles and silver flowers beautifully made by , Mrs. Kitchen. Mrs. Rea Anderson was in the chair on this occasion.
Around 1979 to 1980, there was a great drive to upgrade the County Hospital and after hearing Mr. Pinto speak on this subject, in 1980 Beragh WI held a mammoth community sale in St. Mary's and Donaghanie, the two halls side by side in Beragh. This realised £1,000, a considerable sum at the time which went towards the building of a Post-Graduate Centre for the hospital.
Belgian trip
In 1979, a trip to Belgium was organised by the president and secretary and 42 intrepid W.I. ladies set off from Beragh to travel by coach and ferry. They crossed the Pennines in a snowstorm and the English channel in a force 10 gale. There were many green faces at the breakfast table as the ferry sailed towards Zebrugge.
Undeterred, in 1980 members set off for Paris for six days. A wonderful time was had by all, with visits to all the sights.
The 40th anniversary in 1992, was celebrated in style with a dinner party for members past and present.
There is a wealth of talent within the W.I. Over the years, ladies have displayed their ability by having their scrapbooks placed in the W.I. scrap book competition and several members have been awarded cups and prizes for their crafts, baking and flower arrangements at local agricultural show.
Ladies have also put on a number of sketches both for the entertainment of our own members and at area meetings.
There have been sad times too when valued members have passed on. The most traumatic event in the 50 years was the loss of two staunch members, Veda Short and Olive Hawkes, in the Omagh bombing on August 15, 1998.
To mark the millennium, the W.I. presented the Johnston Memorial Hall with the gift of a speaker's chair.