Florence Creighton with members of the Lisnaskea Library-based Knit and Natter group and their ‘prayer flags’.
They are (from left) – Carol Somerville, Mary Light, Margaret Latimer, Anna Cranley, Eileen Crawford, Betty Morrow, Margaret McAdam and Blanche Gordon
A TRIP to Nepal, home of Everest, by Florence Creighton, a former home economics teacher from Newtownbutler has inspired over a dozen women’s groups on both sides of the border to produce 133 ‘prayer flags’.
The ‘flags’, bearing a personal message, are planted by the Nepalese on the graves of family members.
The key ‘driver’ in the project was Cassandra Hand, the lady who founded Clones Lace whose grave in Clogh cemetery recently refurbished at a cost of €3,000.
“To fulfil the funder’s conditions, they had to have a number of cross-border, cross-community directives. I had been to Nepal and was familiar with these prayer flags, and the Clogh group made 11 and that started the ball rolling.”
In all, the women’s groups that Florence was involved with made 133 prayer flags which are currently on display in Lisnaskea library where the Knit and Natter Club, who made some of the flags, are based.”
The group meets every Thursday, from 11am-12.30, and it was where we met Florence and the members and saw the flags.
A 35-verse poem, she composed, hangs on one wall of the library and it explains how the prayer flag venture all started with a phone call from Kathleen Cassidy from Clones.
It mentions the other women’s groups that contributed, among them Teemore, Newtownbutler, Lisbellaw and, nearer ‘home’, Carrowsyl, Drumhaw Fold and Barnlee.
In over a week’s time, Florence hopes to bring all these groups together in Lisnaskea Library, and there is no doubt the prayer flag project has caught on.
“There were 150 people at the Clogh launch where the bishop of Clogher, Rt Rev John McDowell, rededicated the grave of Cassandra Hand. The International Fund For Ireland was represented.”
It brought a remarkable project to a full circle.