Celebrating fifty years of guiding in Longford

Over the past six weeks, Longford Viking Guide, Rachel Rafferty and her mother and past Girl Guide Melanie have been trawling through the Longford Leader archive microfiche, with the help of County Archivist Martin Morris, in search of Guiding history.

Rachel is not just a second, but third-generation Girl Guide, as her Granny, Fran Rhatigan established a further Brownie unit, when the existing ones were full, such was the demand for places.

Many current members are second and third generation – indeed looking through the photos in researching this article one would double-take a picture as to whether it was an old picture or current Guide, family resemblances are so clear.

Guiding in Longford started, appropriately, with 12 year old Helen Vaughan approaching Urban Councillor, Philo Kelly with a request to form a branch of Irish Girl Guides in Longford.

Helen highlighted to Philo the lack of recreational facilities for girls in the town as compared with those for boys and her enthusiasm was infectious. Philo Kelly began to research the possibility of bringing Guiding to Longford.

Taking this suggestion to a Longford Urban Council meeting, she emphasised the value of such organisations in training the youth.

A meeting in the Annaly Hotel in November 1971 saw over 100 young girls attend with many more indicating an interest in joining. Miss Kelly and Mrs Cahill of Lanesboro attended a training the following weekend in the Guide Cottage, Enniskerry. An advert in the Longford Leader, 3 December 1971 invited ladies interested in training Girl Guides to please attend at Courthouse, on Wednesday, December 8 at 7pm for a short meeting.

Intensive training followed and on February 26, 1971, only nine months after Helen’s initial approach to Miss Kelly, the first Irish Girl Guide Leaders in Longford were enrolled. The founding members were all well-known ladies in Longford and Lanesboro; Miss Philo Kelly, Mrs Florrie Vaughan, Miss Angela Davis, Mrs Ann Cumiskey, Dr Marie Fitzpatrick, Mrs Jean Farrell, Mrs Olive Cahill, Miss Ann Farrell, Mrs Winifred Kerr, Mrs Sieglinde Moller and Mrs Judy Pearse.

The adventures that these intrepid Leaders took the girls on certainly gave them the girls best experiences and they were a very well-travelled group. One of the first trips away was to Lissadell House, Co. Sligo: The setting for the Girl Guides Camp at Lissadell was delightful, right beside the sea, we had the whole beach to ourselves with swimming always under the supervision of a qualified Life Saver from Sligo.

On our visit to Lissadell House, Miss Gore-Booth showed us the home of her illustrious aunts, Eva Gore-Booth and her sister Countess Markievicz, telling us anecdotes of the many famous personalities, including WB Yeats, who frequently visited. (Longford Leader Guide Notes September 8, 1972).

Locally though, Guides were able to avail of many amenities no longer accessible. There were regular camping excursions to Carriglass Manor courtesy of Miss Lefroy. Having been a Guide herself Miss Lefroy knew that Guiding is essentially an outdoor movement and did her best to provide access for an appreciation of their environment. Guides would hike out and set up camp, practicing their cookouts, campcraft and pioneering skills, making friendships that would last a lifetime. Longford Guides cookout skills were such that many regional cookout competition trophies have Longford inscribed on them. The community support for the Guides and their activities were reflected in the life skills made available to them, including weekly swimming and lifesaving lessons in the old pool with Mr and Mrs Shiels.

Well established and supported so very quickly, the Leaders weren’t stopping at just the local and national events. International travel was the goal and following huge fundraising efforts by girls and Leaders they headed off to Our Chalet, Adelboden, Switzerland a World Guide Centre and destination for many international trips thereafter, with North Longford units visiting as recently as this year. So many Co Longford Guides have had their photo taken on the steps of the Chalet in the Swiss Alps.

Caption: Our Chalet, Switzerland

St Patrick’s Day in Longford is another annual event that saw many winning entries by Longford Girl Guides, colourful floats and marching girls, abiding memories of freezing in uniforms and layering up to brave the elements. Other memories include the Variety Shows – girls given the opportunity to perform on the Temperance Hall stage, weekends in Portlick, Mote Park, Petersburg.

Looking through the past articles and notes the fundamental programme of activities remains constant, with this description from another 1970s Longford Leader article: The Girl Guides movement provides an opportunity for a fantastic variety of extremely interesting activities for its members. These range from mountain climbing to learning how to install an electric plug. The best-known activities are camping and hiking, but others include cooking, first aid, international knowledge, nature study, lifesaving, music, needlework, photography and reading.

The aims of the Guides are to develop fully in accordance with spiritual and more values the character and ability of each one to foster a love of our country and its traditions and arts and to train in citizenship and homecrafts; to show the way to leadership and responsibility to find opportunities for service to others; to apply our campcraft and skills in practical ways to encourage friendship and goodwill among girls of all nations.

There are so many familiar names and experiences, we hope to collate this information and more for future generations of Guides to have access to.

Caption: Thinking Day 2018 - Longford Viking Guides, North Longford and Ardagh.

It is a proud reflection of Longford women that these values still hold strong, and volunteers are still giving of their time to ensure the Guiding tradition remains strong in Co. Longford, with Districts currently in Ardagh, Longford and North Longford why not get involved? Contact a unit near you – you’re never too old to take up a Guiding Challenge.

* Longford District Girl Guides are celebrating this 50th Anniversary with the support of Longford County Council and Longford Live and Local with a Variety Show on October 23 in the Longford Temperance Hall. Longford Guides would like to invite all past Leaders to join them in this celebration and recognise their contribution to the girls and women of Longford, free tickets are available on Eventbrite.

To find out more about Longford Ladybirds, Brownies, Guides and Sr Branch email: LongfordGirlGuides@gmail.com or find us on Facebook @LongfordGirlGuides.