Over the 100 years of the history of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, a variety of local cookbooks have been written by individual ICA Guilds and their members. The aim of the earliest books produced was to be a practical guide to help women improve their culinary skills. These early books were passed down through families from one generation to the next. I am lucky enough to have a very well-used and well-loved ICA cookery book, Bantracht na Tuaitha: 1910–1960 Golden Jubilee Cookery Book, as part of my family’s heritage. When I came into office as National President of the ICA, we felt the time had come to ask my fellow members to join me in contributing some of the wonderful recipes that we use every day in our homes to make up a national cookery book of the ICA’s favourite dishes.
We wanted to include dishes featuring produce local to our area and recipes enjoyed in a family for generations alongside modern ideas picked up along the way, and in doing so to build up a new collection of recipes that span the length and breadth of the country. And we wanted to pepper these with practical tips for saving time and money, for getting the best results every time and for cooking for special diets in order to share the wealth of our members’ experience and to preserve this knowledge for future generations.
We in the ICA are very proud of our heritage and of all the milestones that we have collectively achieved over the last 100 years. This cookery book is not only a celebration of the wonderful ingredients and produce available in this great land, but also of our colourful history, our families, our local communities.
When the ICA was established in 1910, its aim was to improve the standard of life in rural Ireland through education and co-operative effort. Since its beginnings the ICA has been part of all of the key developmental activities in food and its production in Ireland. Up until the late 1920s, potatoes, cabbages and onions were the only vegetables grown and cooked throughout Ireland. The ICA bought and distributed a wide variety of seeds, and taught members how to grow and cook these new vegetables at what was the first ICA summer school, held in Sliabh na mBán, Co Tipperary in 1929.
In the 1930s these ICA classes expanded to cover poultry and egg production, cheese-making and bee-keeping to enable members improve their diets and earn money from the sale of their home produce. In response to Ireland’s tuberculosis epidemic in the earlier part of the last century the ICA encouraged members to keep goats whose milk was free from TB infection, and goats’ milk depots were set up around the country to enable members to trade.
By 1947 the ICA was involved in helping small producers to collectively market their home produce by setting up a nationwide network of Country Markets. In the 1950s the rural electrification of Ireland transformed the kitchens of Irish women and their families. Members of the ICA toured the country with a Model Farm Kitchen mobile unit, demonstrating the greatly improved cooking facilities now available. In the 1960s the ICA’s ‘Turn on the Tap’ group water scheme gave rural families the basic necessity of running water inside the home, improving hygiene and cooking as a result.
Now in the 21st Century, food and the joys of cooking continue to be an integral part of ICA life. We continue to offer cookery and gardening classes at An Grianán, our adult education centre in Termonfeckin, Co Louth where RTE’s ICA Bootcamp was filmed. In 2011 we joined forces with TV chef and food writer Edward Hayden, who embarked on a county-by-county road show of cookery demonstrations, an initiative that has proved extremely popular with members right across the country.
In today’s busy modern lives, the importance of a family meal cannot be overstated. It is around the family table that we learn so much about our values, where we right the wrongs of the day and discuss our problems and hopes for the future. The family meal is central to our communities and their wellbeing. The ICA Cookbook will help you make this experience the best it can be, and help us all rediscover the simple pleasures of a home-cooked meal made with local produce that is in season and good for our health.
As we have sung in our ICA song for the last 100 years, our land “is a rich and rare land, she is a fresh and fair land”. Let us enjoy what is all around us, both rich and fresh, and let us celebrate our heritage through the simple pleasures of home-cooked food.
Liz Wall
National President of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association