On Saturday night I was at a very unusual event.
A lady from Donegal, Breezy Kelly, has been teaching school children how to bake traditional Irish soda bread and scones for years. And while she's showing them how to bake, letting them feel the flour, and letting them take part in the process, she tells stories and sings old songs. How the fairies have to be let out of the grain - that's why a cross is put into the bread. And why we throw a pinch of salt over our shoulders - that's for the fairies too.
Well a few years ago she had the brain wave that we break bread for peace so why not bake bread for peace too. Last year she initiated International Bake Bread for Peace Day - I wrote about on this blog here.
And now she is taking to the road to bring her message out to more people. And on Saturday about 30 people gathered in my friends' Catherine and Tom's house and we listened to Breezy spinning yarns ....
coaxing the men to come up and describe the feeling of the flour....
singing both coarse and sweet old songs that everyone joined in with.
(these photos aren't very focussed - no-one would stand still long enough )
And while she baked and we chatted with her from the 'audience' seated at tables set with tea-
sets and butter and jam, memories arose of our own childhoods in kitchens where our mothers baked and told similar stories and sang those well loved and well known songs.
And the smell of home baking that started to pervade the kitchen took us all back. 80 year old Madge joined in with stories about the goat that was kept at home - how did it get up on the porch every time she went to town - many years later she discovered that two of her sons carried it up there as a prank! Tommy told stories of trying to milk the goat - it took 5 of them!!! I remembered walking in the bog barefoot and several told of bringing the tea to the hay field. One city guy in the audience was a bit overwhelmed by the country simplicity of it all - I think he fell in love.
Then a break to sample the produce - tea and scones and more chat and reminiscing.
coaxing the men to come up and describe the feeling of the flour....singing both coarse and sweet old songs that everyone joined in with.
(these photos aren't very focussed - no-one would stand still long enough )
And while she baked and we chatted with her from the 'audience' seated at tables set with tea-
sets and butter and jam, memories arose of our own childhoods in kitchens where our mothers baked and told similar stories and sang those well loved and well known songs.
And the smell of home baking that started to pervade the kitchen took us all back. 80 year old Madge joined in with stories about the goat that was kept at home - how did it get up on the porch every time she went to town - many years later she discovered that two of her sons carried it up there as a prank! Tommy told stories of trying to milk the goat - it took 5 of them!!! I remembered walking in the bog barefoot and several told of bringing the tea to the hay field. One city guy in the audience was a bit overwhelmed by the country simplicity of it all - I think he fell in love.
Then a break to sample the produce - tea and scones and more chat and reminiscing.
Breezy is extraordinary - she makes everyone feel at home and puts even the most cantankerous audient beautifully in place without offence.
So if you see a woman with a dog walking the roads with a bag of flour on her back, stop her and invite her in - you'll be glad you did.
One of our friends that couldn't make it, was there in spirit when Breezy sang his wonderful song "Fresh Bread" Colum Sands is a gifted songwriter. ( I wrote about his last album here). He remembered seeing women in Belfast behind barricades that were on fire and women from the neighbouring street, from the opposite persuasion, throwing loaves of bread to them. It's such an emotive image that for me.
Here's Colum singing his song modified for this special dance by a group called Spoken Dance. The boy in the wheelchair comes from Afghanistan and he was wounded by a bullet in the spine - he came to Ireland for treatment and now lives and works in Limerick where the girl and this dance company are from. It's not a great video but I find it incredibly moving.
Join Breezy's Facebook Page for Bake Bread for Peace at this link.
