Deirdre McQuillan visits New Ross, Co Wexford, where the weaving of Europe's biggest tapestry is bringing the area's rich history alive.
It is 10 o'clock on a summer morning in Bawnmore, a farmhouse outside New Ross, and Eva Nevill is labouring away on a horse's leg in concentrated fashion. She's then going to finish off Isabella's knees, before couching the king's cloak. Sitting beside her, Kitty Cullen is busy wrapping up a detailed section of grass in bullion knots, while Kathleen Ryan, having finally completed Dermot's chequered trousers, is selecting colours for a shaggy mantle.
It may all sound a little strange, but these companionable activities are, in reality, the work of women making history. They are three of some 40 stitchers and embroiderers in different groups around Wexford - Bunclody, Fethard, Clonroche, Duncannon, Poulfur, Ferns - engaged on a remarkable and extraordinarily ambitious project, a series of 15 six-by-four-and-a-half-feet tapestries depicting the early history of New Ross, the Norman town founded by William Marshall in the early l3th century.
The tapestry on which Eva, Kitty and Kathleen are working, "Gothic Glory: The Parish Church of St Mary's in 1210", depicts the building of the church in l210 by William Marshall. Its grandeur reflected his own ambitions. Isabella, William's wife, is seated at a table amid the activity, and dominating the scene is the ghost of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, her grandfather.
The project - which started as a modest idea six years ago for the 19th-century Church of Ireland St Mary's - has taken on a life of its own, and some experts now reckon it to be the biggest embroidered tapestry ever made in Europe.
"By the time we got to the fourth tapestry, we suddenly realised how huge its significance was," says Alexis Bernstorff, a textile expert and art historian who set up the groups and commands an army of stitchers all over the county. "You feel as if it is about to explode; it has got bigger, faster."
Each of the detailed panels takes four stitchers some two-and-a-half to three years to complete. Three of the tapestries are now finished, and six are in production, including the one mentioned above. It is hoped that seven will be ready by 2007, when New Ross celebrates the 800th anniversary of its foundation.
Famous tapestries such as the Bayeux in France, from the 11th century, are huge visitor attractions. More recently in Fishguard, a tapestry entitled "The Last Invasion" depicting an attempted Napoleonic incursion into Wales in February 1797 attracted 60,000 visitors during its first year on view. When the Archdeacon of Ferns, Paul Mooney, saw the Welsh tapestry, the idea of something similar for New Ross took root.
According to the artist Ann Griffin Bernstorff, who has been responsible for the research and execution of the cartoons (paintings from which the tapestries are made), the size of the church determined the scale of the panels. "We realised they had to be huge; otherwise they would look pathetic. They have to show depth and have impact because they have to be seen from a distance. Once we realised the story that had lain dormant and the jewels that lay around neglected, things took on a different perspective in every sense."
The panels cover a remarkable period in our history, and outline, she says, what the Irish were like before the Normans arrived and what happened when they did. Historical accuracy was of paramount importance. "We are extremely serious about that because Wexford has powerful historians ready to pounce immediately from all quarters if you get it wrong, so we are desperately careful."
Griffin Bernstorff's exhaustive research has made her something of an authority on medieval life in Ireland and though her task is to put that into visual form, "the skills of interpretation are at least 50 per cent of the work," she says. In the panel that features Raymond Le Gros at Hook Head lighthouse, a puffin with three chicks had to be unpicked because an expert pointed out that a puffin only has one chick. Fortunately, there have been no other ornithological or historical inaccuracies.
The whole story of New Ross and its European past is "riveting", according to Griffin Bernstorff. "It was a model of Norman marine technology and commercial acumen. There is a Sleeping Beauty element to it all. Six languages were spoken in New Ross in 1210. William Marshall, who was called the finest flower of chivalry by the Plantagenets, was vastly important and he set up New Ross as a greenfield site, a financial centre, because of its natural harbour. In its heyday there were up to 400 ships in New Ross and 16 different guilds. Marshall brought in Italian financiers, the best in Europe, such as the Frescobaldis and the Ricardis from Lucca, who were used to handling immense sums of money. They were 200 years ahead of any other group in the world - in modern parlance, it was bling-bling time," she beams, fluttering her hands in the air.
Many local families are unaware of their Norman origins. Nor do many people realise that Italians owned vast tracts of land in Ireland at the time. In "The Thriving Port of New Ross", Frescobaldi, dark and handsome, stands proud in his Italian finery, master of all he surveys.
Stitchers, whose work is voluntary, are drawn from all walks of life and all denominations - farmers, nurses, a Mercy nun, grandmothers and teachers. "They find it extraordinarily relaxing - there is massive bonding among them," says Alexis Bernstorff. "People are discovering that they can do amazing things."
The basic technique is crewelwork and hundreds of different stitches are used; one area, for example, took some 6,000 bullion knots to complete. There are 400 shades from which to choose and a single fold in Isabella's dress demanded five different shades of blue. "You have to take texture and the fall of light into consideration when choosing colour and stitches," says Alexis. Each panel costs about €4,500 to complete and funds are drawn from various sources through an active fundraising committee.
Kitty Cullen used to work for knitters Lainey Keogh and Joan Millar. She has always loved needlework and says that both she and Kathleen are proud of their work and enjoy the admiration it gets. "It is very relaxing and it gets us out of the kitchen; when it is finished we will have something to show."
Eva Nevill, whose husband John comes from an old Norman family, says it's lovely "to see figures coming to life, the faces and the eyes; it's like a miracle, the whole thing." It has made the women aware of their past - and their future: the work is there for generations to come. A recognisable face in the panel is that of Simon Ó Cinnéide, a local solicitor now immortalised in stitch, a reward for providing the company articles for free.
When completed, the tapestries will hang like standards inside the church and each one will be illuminated in turn to highlight its story. Currently New Ross's biggest visitor attraction is the famine ship Dunbrody, but bringing history to life through stitchcraft has had all sorts of unexpected benefits.
For Ann Griffin Bernstorff, it has another dimension, being a reminder of a time when New Ross was a thriving European city, when two cultures, the Gaelic and the Norman, were coming together, and the relevance of that today with EU integration and globalisation. "We need to find our way back, to pick up threads in order to show us where we are now. It is very important. This is a gift to future generations." u
• Three finished panels and eight cartoons will be on display at Newtownbarry House, Bunclody, Co Wexford at the end of October, during the Wexford Festival. Ann Griffin Bernstorff will give a talk on the tapestry on October 24th at 11.30 a.m. in the Millrace Hotel, Bunclody. Admission: €7