Grange Craft Fair - Sunday 21 May 2017

The sun was shining and the birds were singing on a magical May morning as the artisan craftsmen and women set up their stalls in the car park at Grange Church. The weather was surely heaven sent. The tents set up in previous days by GCRA elfs proved unnecessary. In the end they merely helped maintain milky-white Grange complexions when their absence might have allowed more mediterranean olive-type tans to develop. But such is the way of outdoor events in Grange, or in Ireland generally. Who can trust the weather? Not the GCRA. Not anyone.

The array of crafts and goods on sale was impressive. The glass screen-print stall featured a Manchester Utd print, to the dismay of the many Liverpool supporters present. Red Devils really have no place next to the graveyard at Grange! Female fashionistas were catered for by some stunning hand-made dresses on offer. Haute couture is alive and very well indeed in greater Grange! If you wanted cakes and nibbles, then you could have them in abundance. If you then regretted your over-indulgence, you could redeem yourself at Debbie Carroll's 'Forever Living Products' stall. Kathy Tiernan had a selection of original art works on display and Rockbarton Garden Centre provided a forest-like entrance to the entire event, the first stall visible as you walked up the Church boreen to the fair. And there were many others.

There was a constant queue for home-made burgers, proof positive that vegetarian or vegan diets are not yet embraced to any great degree by meat-munching Grangers. Betty O'Connell proudly announced that she had just sold a DVD of the 1916 Memorial Garden Event which took place in this very same car park over one year back. Was it really so long ago? It seems like only yesterday that Triona O'Donnell was singing 'Grace' with her angelic Grange voice to a mesmerised audience. Yes it was - 24 April 2016 to be precise.

The craft fair is one of many that will be held at Grange Church car park this year. If you were unlucky enough to have missed this one, then do not miss those that will follow. You are assured of a real treat. And possibly, just possibly, the added bonus of an olive-coloured skin complexion!

Dates of future craft fairs will appear on this site.