Documentary on One Podcast has a brand new show coming to RTÉ Radio 1, following the exceptional life of one spectacular item of clothing.
Over the last 50 years, one wedding dress has been passed down through the O'Reilly family, ultimately bringing ten brides down the aisle - despite their different shapes and sizes.
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, eat your heart out.
The simple white dress has been trampled by calves, had tea spilled over it, been soaked in cold baths (good for keeping its colour, apparently) - and it still looks fantastic.
The secret, they say, is in its design. The full-length, long-sleeved, white dress is made of small squares of crocheted flowers, which can be shrunk or stretched to any size.
Although it looks quite intricate, it’s not delicate - it had to get through 10 Irish weddings after all.
Although, it has a 1970s design, each bride has adapted it to her own personal style and time.
Made by her own mother, Maura O'Reilly walked up the aisle in the dress in 1972, and 50 years later, her niece walked up the aisle wearing the same dress – unaltered.
In between, eight other brides of the O'Reilly family have worn the same dress at their weddings in Cavan and Italy.
"This dress has been worn by virgins, a mother of two, and a girl who was five-months pregnant. I call it The Feminist Dress," says Siobhán, one of the many brides.
Her mother, Sheila, who made the dress, was a feminist who believed in equal opportunities for their daughters and granddaughters.
As a full-time farmer and homemaker, Sheila found expression through the local Killeshandra ICA guild which organised political debates, information talks as well as practical classes and competitions.
Over the years, on the local ICA St. Patrick’s Day float, Sheila’s famous wedding-dress was central to the display.
And, on wedding days, in the O’Reilly family, the dress is central to proceedings.
The dress is cleaned and dried to the size and shape of the bride.The bride wears an under dress, which is sometimes stitched to the outer crochet dress.
Each of the flowers in the crochet squares is pinned down to hold their shape.It takes 40 minutes to remove all those pins, just before the bride goes up the aisle.
And if the groom doesn’t praise the dress in his speech? A chorus of "mad O’Reilly aunties" will berate him from the tables.
Then, after the meal and the first dance, the bride has to rush upstairs to be taken out of the dress by some of those aunties – sometimes unstitched from it – so it doesn’t become damaged during the dancing.
Siobhán says that although the dress is 50 years old and is still being worn, it’s not an ‘heirloom’.
"An heirloom is something whose history you look back on. We all look forward to the future of the dress."
The Feminist Dress, is the story of an incredible wedding dress and the 10 women who've worn it. Listen back or tune in RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday, September 23, Radio at 2pm.
