Deeds Not Words: The Life and Work of Muriel Gahan

In 1930 Muriel Gahan set up that unique Dublin institution, The Country Shop, on St Stephen's Green and steered its course for close on fifty years. She was deeply involved in the Royal Dublin Society and the Irish Countrywomen's Association and was directly responsible for setting up Country Markets Ltd, the Irish Homespun Society and the Crafts Council of Ireland. Muriel's motto was that of the Society of United Irishwomen, 'Deeds not Words'. This is the story behind those deeds, disentangled strand by strand from the cat's cradle of interconnecting organisations she bacame involved with and through which she worked. It is also a tribute to the countless women and men who worked with and around her. In this illuminating and tender biography, Geraldine Mitchell traces the life of Muriel Gahan, a unique woman who nurtured the creative and social life of rural women and craftworkers and made them matter to an ordinarily uncaring society.