Presidential visit for Rosaleen Hegarty who changed the lives of women

A former primary school teacher who started a business which provided financial support for hundreds of women across the county has been acknowledged for her contribution by receiving an invite to attend a garden party in celebration of Irish heritage, hosted by President Michael D Higgins in Arás an Uachtarán, on Sunday, July 2.
Buncrana woman Rosaleen Hegarty, 87, said that both she and her daughter, Maire Houstoun, had a wonderful day.
Those who were in attendance at the very special invite-only event were greeted by Sabina Higgins whom Rosaleen described as being very hospitable and welcoming: “She was an exceptionally nice person and she joined in with the tea party in the afternoon.”
Sabrina presented Rosaleen with an antique handkerchief.
President Michael D Higgins was present during the day and delivered a lengthy oration to those gathered.
Those who were in attendance had to be nominated by someone and people are not informed of who nominated them. Rosaleen doesn’t know who nominated her and was taken aback when she saw a letter with a golden harp delivered to her home.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it. A letter arrived inviting me and a friend to the event. You then had to call them and inform them who you were bringing with you,” she said.
Rosaleen believes she was invited to the event because of her company Crana Handknits Ireland - a company which is described as being the last registered cottage industry in Ireland.
“At one stage in my life I had five-hundred women knitting for me all over Donegal,” Rosaleen said.
The reason Rosaleen established the company many decades ago was in order to provide money for women who were working at home.
“I was a primary school teacher and I taught for 20 years when I was told I had cancer. I was in my early 40’s and I was put out on disability. I underwent a year of chemotherapy,” she recalls.
Rosaleen attended school in Falcarragh, a preparatory college for primary school teachers, which was run by the Loretto nuns. She was smart and industrious and won a scholarship to attend the college where she spent four years there studying to become a teacher.
“The nuns were exceptionally nice to us. It was all boarders. Everyone spoke Irish and I still speak it,” she said.
Rosaleen was a young teacher and celebrated her twenty-first birthday at the Cockhill primary school. At that time, the girls who attended school were fortunate to have Rosaleen as a sewing and knitting teacher. The girls left school at fourteen years of age and would have to wait for two years before they could seek employment in the local shirt factory.
“You had to be sixteen to get a job in the shirt factory at the time, so the girls had a couple of years at home. Back then sewing and knitting was on the primary school curriculum so I asked my friends if they wanted a sweater knitted. They gave me the wool and I got the girls to knit a few sweaters and they earned some money,” Rosaleen said.
An expert in patterns and design, Rosaleen made a drawing of the sweater and the girls began to knit. The idea took off and soon the girls were teaching their sisters, neighbours and friends to knit and a small industry began to emerge.
Rosaleen’s father, John, was a keen businessman and decided to lend a helping hand to his daughter.
“He said to me: ‘Do it for yourself, sell the sweaters and make a business of it’,” she said.
Rosaleen’s cousin and friend Jim soon began to work together. He had a business at the time and it was proving exceptionally popular with the American sailors who came to Derry. They would come to Buncrana and buy souvenirs to bring back to America. Rosaleen’s knitwear proved a major hit with them and soon much of her merchandise was making its way across the Atlantic to America.
Her father purchased a huge batch of wool and told Rosaleen to get started. She never looked back and it was this idea that proved to be the foundation that made her business the outstanding success it has been over the decades.
“I never set out to register a business but it got so big and so many people wanted me to knit sweaters for them,” she recalls.
A lady of outstanding commitment, when approached by shops and businesses to design and knit a sweater for them, Rosaleen designed a pattern unique to their enterprise to ensure that no two sweaters were ever the same.
“It has certainly been an interesting journey that started about sixty-five years ago, she said.