Description
Dolly Mixtures is a celebration of a great writing experience that happened in Dolly’s Cottage, Strandhill, over a number of years. As facilitator of Writers’ Ink creative writing workshops, it was my privilege to work with a very talented group of writers. They came from all walks of life and from all corners of the globe (as you’ll hear by the accents) and they travelled from as far away as Cavan and Donegal to attend the weekly workshops.
Dolly’s Cottage is an old thatched and whitewashed cottage in Strandhill. When we ducked our heads to enter the low door of Dolly’s Cottage, we stepped back in time and entered sacred space. The fire was crackling in the hearth, the plates were gleaming on the dresser, ancient fossils were embedded in the flagstone floor. There was no ceiling above us, only the thatch and a little St. Brigid’s cross that nestled there, crafted by the original roof-maker, to protect the cottage from fire. St. Brigid was there, in her magic cloak, St Patrick was banishing snakes. Here, we put away our everyday lives and became, simply, writers. Many of these poems and stories were first evoked and shared there.
