McCandless congratulates WI on Centenary

Councillor McCandless said: “The Women’s Institute is an organisation which has made a valuable and universally positive contribution to communities throughout the United Kingdom and beyond.

“The first UK branch was established in north Wales one hundred years ago and the first Northern Ireland branch was established in 1932 in Garvagh by a Miss Dorothea McCausland.

“The organisation expanded rapidly throughout the 1930s and meant that with the outbreak of war, a ready-made structure to help with the war effort was already in place. Indeed the Ministry of Food put its scheme for the Preservation of Fruit into the hands of the Women’s Institute.

“The WI played a key role in mobilising women and communities in support of the War effort .

“The sense of community and working for the greater good has remained with the Women’s Institute throughout the decades and literally hundreds of communities have benefitted as a result. A the WI celebrates its Centenary in the UK I wish it well for the next hundred years.”