A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Kitchen classic reprinted by popular demand
Kate Madden was stopped a few times on the Luas as she carried the project she was working on into the office. People of a certain age would grip her elbow and ask hotly, “Where did you get that book?” The book was Deirdre Madden’s All About Home Economics, the Inter Cert textbook first published in 1983. Its practical how-to advice about cooking, sewing and home-making meant it lived on past its life in the schoolbag. Student digs, halls of residence and first homes were often furnished with a dog-eared and butter-smeared copy. Like Soundings, the Leaving Cert poetry collection, the book tapped into schoolday nostalgia when a caller to Ryan Tubridy’s radio show rang up appealing for a copy. Copies of the book had been selling on Ebay for a number of years.
Madden’s daughters Kate and Aisli (left) decided to self-publish the book, using the same cover design. One of their strongest childhood memories is being brought into the home economics room of Loreto Abbey Dalkey as toddlers, to sit quietly down the back as their mother baked for her class.
Deirdre Madden was a full-time teacher and also wrote 12 textbooks. Sadly she did in 1999 at the age of 56. Part of the proceeds from the book will go to the Irish Cancer Society. All About Home Economics by Deirdre Madden (€16.99) is in bookshops, and can be purchased online at deirdremadden.ie.
Catherine Cleary
Chic and cosy cheer
The Swedes are just so stylish about Christmas, so why fight it? The simplest place to get the cheery cosy red and white look is at Ikea which, right now, is coming down with oh so tasteful decorations. We’re talking tiny knitted toadstools, white, jewel centred puff balls to suspend over the dinner table, origami birds to perch on your dining chairs, elegant storm lanterns. and throws and cushions festooned with fashionable snowflake designs. And then there are those extremely handy Christmas tins of ginger thins. ikea.ie
Index
WHAT’S HOT
Penneys chinosAt €5, how cheap and cheerful is that?
Book clubs go viralWith Irish clubs meeting as far away as the south of France, they seem to provide the perfect excuse for just about anything
Kristen StewartA terrific modern heroine in Breaking Dawn
Coconut oilFor frying, for roasting. You get used to it. Long chain fatty acids make everything right
Drawing classesVery now in adult education
Sequins for daytimeWhy reserve your best bling for Saturday nights? Team with opaque tights, ankle boots and knits for unexpected glamour
Affordable Christmas glitzAt Dealz in Blanchardstown and Portlaoise everything is €1.49. Beat that
Bieber baby dramaHas someone been a bad boy?
Ireland IncNo longer the poorest country in the EU
Starbucks red cupsThe special Christmas blends such as the gingerbread and toffee nut lattes are yum
WHAT’S NOT
A weight traitorNigella Lawson lets us all down by losing a couple of stone on the quiet. Shocking
Kylie's pillow faceStop using it, whatever it is
Group appointmentsIs it fair that doctors book a dozen patients for the same time slot? We have lives too
School skiing holidaysHolding up, even in recession. Could it be anything to do with the fact that accompanying teachers travel free?
Pre-Christmas shopping holidaysWhy go abroad when you can do all of your shopping at home? Buying Irish has never been so fashionable
Empty coffee cups left in your bike basketIt's not a wheely bin, bud
Moisturising overloadSerums, primers, SPFs, highlighters, mattifying creams . . . for overloaded skin, a return to a simple vitamin-E cream proves a blessed relief
Diet jeopardyYou know the type – comes over with a box of biscuits but doesn't eat any herself because she's "on a diet". Enabling is never sisterly
The OscarsNow that Eddie Murphy is no longer hosting, comic genius is needed to spice up the ceremony
Budget timeIt's on its way and will be very depressing, but hey, it's unavoidable
'The Ides of March' We expected more after the hype
With contributions from Transition Year students
Dervla Hughes, Emily Grimes, Shauna Donnelly,
Darragh Shevlin, Scott Doyle, Luke Sharkey and Cathal Fahey
Art and cake
An exhibition of Noreen O’Hanlon’s paintings, Symphony Of Colour, is showing at the Dún Laoghaire Art Gallery, Brian S. Nolan Interiors, 102 Upper Georges Street, Dún Laoghaire from next Thursday until December 1st. You could combine a viewing with a tasty snack in White Tea, the cafe in the same building.
Songs of the heart
Ten-year-old Emma McCarron’s CD, A Lighter Heart, is a musical treat with a difference. McCarron underwent extensive treatment for more than two years at Crumlin Children’s Hospital when she was diagnosed with a rare children’s cancer, Neuroblastoma. This year she decided she wanted to do something for the hospital and collaborated with some talented relatives of hers to record a CD. The result is four beautiful songs sung in McCarron’s unique sean-nós style. All the proceeds go to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital. It can be purchased or downloaded for €5 at emmamccarron.ie.
Irish jewellery that is about to take off
Angela O’Kelly’s bold jewellery, call it large scale wearable art, is fashioned from paper, fabric and precious metals. “I’m attracted to clashing colours in nature,” she says. Inspired by boglands and seaside rock formations, her textured pieces, usually one-offs, are made from lightweight materials. She is one of the 16 Irish jewellery makers exhibiting in Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 – and occasionally giving demonstrations of their work – as part of the Crafts Council campaign to encourage passengers to support Irish designers in the run up to Christmas. O’Kelly also collaborates with the London-based Iranian designer Shirin Guild, designing pieces that counterpoint Guild’s understated clothing for the Japanese market. You can see the jewellery in House of Ireland, Terminal 2, Dublin Airport.
Deirdre McQuillan
Fashion and toys at Rathfarnham Castle
A unique private collection of 18th-century costumes and toys, including many lavishly embroidered silk dresses, most of them Irish, goes on display tomorrow in its new home, the magnificent neo-classical interior of Rathfarnham Castle.
The Berkeley Costume and Toy Collection, started more than 20 years ago by Countess Ann Bernstorff of Berkeley Forest in Wexford (the ancestral home of philosopher George Berkeley), covers a period of some 80 years from 1740 and is a fascinating insight into social history and fashionable taste of the time. The exhibition will be supplemented in the coming years by costumes from later periods, including some early 20th-century wedding dresses.
Bernstorff is a well-known artist and collector, and is also one of the prime movers behind the Ross Tapestry, one of the largest series of embroidered tapestries ever made in Europe. Also opening tomorrow in Rathfarnham Castle is 21st-Century Icons, an exhibition curated by Ann Mulrooney in which 21 Irish jewellers revisit the torc for present-day neckpiece inspiration. The exhibition opening times are Wednesday to Sunday and bank holiday Mondays, 10.30am to 5pm. See heritageireland.ie.
Deirdre McQuillan
Collectable furniture
A smaller version of the celebrated Enignum table made by Joseph Walsh in Cork that made headlines when it sold to the South American architect Rafael Vinoly for $145,000 last year, is one of 17 pieces in the Irish furniture maker's first solo show, which opened in Dublin on Thursday. Walsh has been working on this exhibition for the past year and sees this furniture, all made in native Irish or French ash, as using the same language and concept but interpreted and executed in different ways. "The whole series is about the elasticity of the material – we are creating compositions relative to the material's elasticity," he says. "Ash is a humble timber with great properties and is great for bending." The pieces range from large dining tables to wall pieces and individual chairs. The exhibition is at the Oliver Sears Gallery in Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, until January 27th.
Deirdre McQuillan
Drinking lessons
Victoria Moore's new book is called How to Drink at Christmas, but it is more about what to drink than how. Her little red book is full of tempting seasonal cocktails, both classic and contemporary. Catering to the requirements of larger parties gets its own chapter, and there are some lovely recipes under "Drinks for Drivers", too. There is advice on wine matches for traditional Christmas foods, and a fascinating chapter devoted to ice cubes, which are not at all as straightforward as you might think. You can join Victoria Moore at Fallon Byrne, 11-17 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2, on Wednesday, November 23rd at 7pm as she demonstrates how to make the perfect winter warmers and festive favourites, as featured in the book. Tickets cost €12 and can be purchased in the shop or you can email events@fallonandbyrne.com to reserve a place.
Marie-Claire Digby
More Downton than downtown for shopping
Longueville House in Mallow, Co Cork becomes a mini department store next Thursday night (November 24th), when a carefully edited selection of vendors set up shop in the hotel's bedrooms, restaurant and public areas.
Jewellery, fashion for adults and children, millinery and accessories, antiques and interior design products, and lots of artisan foods will be on sale on the night, giving you the chance to do your Christmas shopping in civilised surrounding, without traffic and parking woes. The retailers invited to take part have been selected for their "quirkiness, innate style and unique quality items", and there will be special offers and discounts to tempt guests to loosen their purse strings.
There will be a party atmosphere in the house, fuelled by mulled and sparkling wines on offer, and the €35 ticket price covers canapes on arrival. Chef proprietor William O'Callaghan will be selling his seasonal food hampers and home-made apple brandy and cider. Tickets should be pre-booked by telephoning 022-47156, and doors open at 7.30pm.
Marie-Claire Digby
Word on the street, Merkozy
What it means:Aieeee! Run away! There's a two-headed monster running rampage through Europe, and there's nowhere you can run or hide. It has already laid waste to Greece, stomped Portugal into the ground, and squeezed Ireland to near-suffocation.
Its next target is Italy – so terrifying is its roar that even Silvio Berlusconi, usually impervious to attack, has gone running for the Tuscan hills and sits cowering in his bunga-bungalow.
Scarier than Godzilla, uglier than King Kong, Merkozy will not stop until it has brought Europe to its knees, and forced us all to swallow its vile fiscal solution. You thought Brangelina was scary – just wait till you meet Merkozy.
Where it comes from:With the euro on the brink of collapse, and the European economic dream hanging by a thread, the time is right for a superhero to save us all from the abyss.
Instead, we have the doom-namic duo of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, a terrifying tag-team that's set to wrestle all resistance to the ground. The German chancellor and the French president have been calling all the shots, laying down the law and bullying the smaller countries into bowing down to their every economic whim.
And all that kissing in public – even Batman and Robin kept that in check.
Nic and Angela are now Europe's number-one power couple, swanning around Europe hand in hand while Carla stays at home and does the dishes. Be afraid, be very, very afraid.
How to say it: "We had Merkozy over to dinner last week – we had to hand over all the family silver just to get rid of them."
