Slow Food Galway Committee 2017
Slow Food Galway Committee 2016
Leader/Chairperson Kate O Dwyer
Secretary : Trish Kirby
Treasurer :Emilia Furey
Membership Secrectary: Cathal Walsh
PR Officer: Rachael Webb
Slow Food Galway Committee 2016
Chairperson: Kate O Dwyer
Secretary: Cait Curran
Treasurer: Amelia Furey
Membership Secretary: Aine Ni Cheannabhain
PR Officer: Maria Conneely
Other committee members Cathal Walsh
Secretary: Cait Curran
Treasurer: Amelia Furey
Membership Secretary: Aine Ni Cheannabhain
PR Officer: Maria Conneely
Other committee members Cathal Walsh
Early days of Slow Food Galway
The 14th century English
proverb states that “Great oaks from little acorns grow” but as we all know,
oak trees grow slowly but steadily. We,
in Slow Food Galway, would like to think that our convivium is also growing
steadily from its slender beginnings in 2009.
2006-2008
Membership records from Slow Food
International show that Thomas Creedon and Irene Jordan from Gort joined SFI in
November 2006. In October 2007, Kate
O’Dwyer became a member shortly followed by Michelle Smyth and Matt
O’Connell. By the end of December ’07,
three more had joined bringing the Galway numbers to eight.
In 2008 some more food-interested
people joined SFI among who were Declan and Aoife Droney of Kinvara Smoked
Salmon, Graham and Saoirse Roberts of Connemara Smokehouse, Ballyconneely, Mary
Cahalane, Deirdre McGrath (previously a member in Amsterdam) and Ronan Byrne –
the Friendly Farmer. Also among the new
recruits in 2008 were Ron and Mona Wise who took out a three year membership –
the first to do so in the Galway region
2009
At this stage, these early members
did not have a local convivium whereby they could meet formally or informally
to share their interest in and appreciation of good, clean and fair food. They
did not have a platform from where they could follow the ethics of the Slow Food Movement and its belief in the
sustainable process of food provision.
So in early 2009, the Galway members of SFI applied to Italy to
establish a convivium in Galway. This
was formally ratified in April 2009 and the first Convivium Leader was Mona
Wise ably assisted by Ron Wise, Aoibheann McNamara (Ard Bia), Kate O’Dwyer and Cáit Curran.
In a 2009 communication from SFI it
was stated that “Ireland was experiencing its worst recession in the history of
the state”. In spite of this, SFI
hoped to increase their national membership from 410 to over 600 in two
years. The Galway convivium alone which started
with about 20 members had about 75/76 member by the end of 2012.
From early 2009 the stalwart members
of SFG set about their convivial activities.
Their Grandmother’s Day held at Ballybane Enterprise Centre allowed the
partaking grannies to share their baking skills with their grandchildren and
some SFG members. In May, they visited
McGeough’s Craft Butchery in Oughterard (pictures above in BLOG ARCHIVE). After a
demonstration in butchery and meat processing, the members headed off to Cnoc
Suain, the idyllic home of Dearbhaill Standún and Charlie Troy where a
sumptuous meal was had by all.
In
September, a wine-tasting event accompanied by wonderful food was hosted at Ron
and Mona’s house where 14/15 members enjoyed the hospitality of the Wise
household (pictures also in BLOG ARCHIEVE).
And then:
On Sunday 18th October the
first of our “biggies” took place - the first of what has become an annual
event. This mushroom forage was lead by
Louis Smith of GMIT assisted by Barbara Buckley (GMIT) and Michael Mulholland
(chef). In spite of heavy rain and very
damp conditions, all present enjoyed their forage followed by a delicious spit
roasted Connemara lamb. While actual
numbers of members and guests present on the day is not definite, the “catering
brigade” believe that approximately 120 people partook of the roasted lamb,
buttered forest mushrooms and delicious side dishes provided by members. Members still talk of the day as one of the
“greats”.
This inaugural year was wrapped up
with “the Spirit of Christmas” event once again hosted at Dearbhaill’s and
Charlie’s Cnoc Suain. In addition to
tasting spiced beef, hams with members’ winter dishes and the sipping of some
home-made seasonal drinks, the AGM was held.
Kate O’Dwyer was selected as the new SFG leader replacing Mona Wise who
felt that due to study and family commitments, she could no longer give the time
necessary to head up the convivium.
2010
Therefore in 2010, Kate with
committee members Deirdre Mc Grath, Barbara Griffin, Cáit Curran, Cobie den
Heyer and Mairéad Uí Dhomhnaill commenced a busy new year with 6 events lined
up, a potential visit to Terra Madre and other selected visits to producer
members.
Subsequent events on subsequent years
are covered chronologically in our web site and hardly need further reporting
here.
Finally, if you feel that I have
given inaccurate information in any of the above please feel free to contact me
at: galway@slowfoodireland.com
Barbara Buckley
I noticed that you have lots of yummy recipes on your page and I would like to suggest you have a look at our Top Food Blogs section here: http://www.alldishes.co.uk/top-food-blogs.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to add your food blog to the list and have your recipes indexed on Alldishes.co.uk, all you have to do is follow the instructions here: http://www.alldishes.co.uk/add-your-food-blog
Hopefully hearing from you soon,
Thanks,
Sakkarin Sº
info@alldishes.co.uk
www.alldishes.co.uk