Craftshop na Méar, Fast Fashion and recycling and Fr. Gerry Roche R.I.P.

Photo: Pat OMeara, Mallow Camera Club

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Memories of Craftshop na Méar

This photograph was taken at our Cois Tine event at Christmas 2013

Alice Taylor happened to be in town that day and she dropped in.

The canon blessed the venture. Here he is greeting his good friend, Anne Moloney.

In the early days, craft classes were a great success.

Some of the lovely local crafts which were sold in Craftshop na Méar

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No One Wants your Used Clothes anymore

This headline in an online article by a man called Adam Mintner caught my attention. Because I am a great fan of pre loved clothes and a firm believer in recycling, I read on and my eyes were opened for me.

You buy clothes. You wear them. You give them to the charity shop or pass them on to a friend. But at the end of the cycle when they are too tatty to be of use to anyone, what then?

A global network of traders collect all the useless garments and recycle them in poor countries either to be worn again or turned into stuffing or into a new material to be used again in cheap clothing.

Panipat in India is the centre of the industry that recycles clothes into yarn. There are 200 business in Panipat devoted to recycling clothes!!!!

They make a cloth known as shoddy. The cloth is made from low quality yarn recycled from woolen garments.

In the year 2000 Panipat's shoddy factories made 100,000 blankets a day, 90% of the relief blanket market.

But things have changed since then. Now Chinese factories can produce new polar fleece blankets more cheaply than recycled ones. These Chinese factories are locating in Panipat and replacing the recycled shoddy with a new cheap material.

Here's a shocking statistic; Between 2000 and 2015 global clothing production doubled.

Thanks to the new phenomenon of "Fast Fashion" the tide of second hand clothes is growing as the market to reuse them declines.

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On the very same day as I read this article online I read in the newspaper that the chain, Dealz is introducing a clothing range. Most of the garments will cost under €5 and there will be 100s of product lines.

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Fr. Gerry Roche of Athea R.I.P.

While I was in Athea last week inspecting the damage done to the mural I strolled up to their lovely church.


On the left of the door is a memorial to a local hero. The whole story is carved in stone,  in this lovely tribute.