Skip to main content

Back To Basics In Recession ...

How our young will get through the recession...


BASICS: Sewing and baking is key...

THE younger generation is being urged to get back to basics and learn the long forgotten skills of sewing, baking and fending for themselves in a series of classes to be held in Dublin city.

Celebrity chef Darina Allen recently said that elderly people have the know-how to cope with limited budgets, but those in younger age groups may find it difficult to survive in the recession.

Helpless

"People have been so focused on careers and academia that they are helpless when they lose their jobs," she said. "They don't have money and they realise they don't have skills that would help them through.

"From a small budget, grandmothers were able to feed the family," she added. "They could look in the fridge and make a meal out of all sorts of little scraps. That is a skill that's lost - being able to judge it yourself when food is safe to eat and when it is not. It's a forgotten skill to be able to make a meal, something delicious and lovely out of leftovers."

Darina has appealed to grandparents to pass on cooking skills to their grandchildren and vice versa.

And now Fashion Evolution, supported by Dublin City Enterprise Board, are holding a series of workshops designed to assist people make the most of their limited wardrobes.

The services available at Crafternoon Tea at Smock Alley Café in Temple Bar on May 2 range from basic knitting classes to pattern drafting for designing your own clothes.

There will also be a 'Clothes Clinic', where people will be taught to how to mend clothes as well as ''Upcycling', which involves taking an old garment and transforming it into something new from as little as €10 a class.

The event is part of Ethical Fashion Week 2009, with a whole host of seminars, lessons and to teach people how to get back to basics and appreciate the rudimentary aspects of fashion.

"The recession is bringing out the creative best in people. There is more of a community spirit and people want to take positive actions to find solutions and find similar positive like minded people," said Eibhlin Curley, Assistant Chief Executive, Dublin City Enterprise Board.

Focus

And Ms Curley said that there is more of a focus on small networking associations for people to exchange ideas and collaborate on projects.

"There is definitely a backlash into positive mode," she said. "People want to get involved and not become a victim but to be constructive and control their own destiny."



Report by Claire Murphy - Evening Herald.

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland's Celtic Tiger Excesses...

'Bang twins' may never get to run a business again... POST-boom Ireland is awash with cautionary tales of Celtic Tiger excesses, as a rattle around the carcasses of fallen property developers and entrepreneurs will show. Few can compete with the so-called Bang twins for youth, glamour and tasteful extravagance. Simon and Christian Stokes, the 35-year-old identical twins behind Bang Cafe and exclusive private members club, Residence, saw their entire business go bust with debts of €9m, €3m of which is owed to the tax man. The debt may be in the ha'penny place compared with the eye-watering billions owed by some of their former customers. But their fall has been arguably steeper and more damning than some of the country's richest tycoons. Last week, further humiliation was heaped on them with revelations that even as their businesses were going under, the twins spent €146,000 of company money in 18 months on designer shopping sprees, five star holidays and sumptu

I fear a very different kind of property crash

While 80% of people over 40 own their own home just a third of adults under 40 do. This is disastrous for social solidarity and cohesion Changing this system of policymaking requires a government to act in a way that may be uncomfortable for some. Governments have a horizon of no more than five years, and the housing issue requires long-term planning. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was intended to tackle some of these problems. According to its website its remit is to “drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland by enhancing governance, building capacity and delivering effectively”. So how is the challenge of delivering homes for people in 2024 and beyond going to be met? The extent of the problem is visible in the move by companies, including Ryanair, to buy properties to house staff. Ryanair has, justifiably, defended its right to do so. IPAV has long articulated its views on how to improve supply an

Property Tycoon's Dolce Vita Ends...

Tycoon's dolce vita ends as art seized... THE Dublin city sheriff has seized an art collection and other valuables from the Ailesbury Road home of fallen property developer Bernard McNamara. The collection will be sold to help pay his debts. The sheriff, Brendan Walsh, is believed to have moved against the property developer within the past fortnight, calling to his salubrious Dublin 4 home acting on a court order to seize anything of value from his home to reimburse his creditors. The sheriff is believed to have taken paintings from the family home along with a small number of other items. The development marks a new low for Mr McNamara, once one of Ireland's richest men but who now owes €1.5bn . The property developer and former county councillor from Clare turned the building firm founded by his father Michael into one of the biggest in Ireland. He is the highest-profile former tycoon to date to be targeted by bailiffs, signalling just how far some of Ireland's billionai