Mrs Eileen Drayne MBE Magheragall Women�s Institute	The late James Drayne (who died in 1977) pictured selling milk door to door in and around Lisburn from a ten-gallon can on the back of a pony and trap.

Mrs Eileen Drayne, a long serving member of Magheragall Women�s Institute was a guest at St Patrick�s Cathedral in Armagh on Maundy Thursday (20th March) to receive the Royal Maundy from the Queen. The sprightly 83 year old greatly enjoys the fellowship of the Women�s Institute and has been a member of Magheragall branch for over half a century and Branch President on two occasions.

A life long member of St Patrick�s Church, she now lives in Pond Park Care Centre. Eileen was awarded an MBE in 1988 for services to the community for 25 years voluntary work with �meals on wheels�, succeeding the late Mrs Maureen McKinney, former Mayor of Lisburn. She also was involved with Save the Children Fund and Apostolic work, a charity that raises money for missionary work.

Eileen can clearly recall early days of the family business (1932) when women filled their jugs from a ten gallon can on the back of a pony and trap as her late husband James (who died in 1977) sold milk door to door in and around Lisburn. She said that James soon got the reputation for good quality creamy milk and credits this to James�s brother Dermot who she said �had a keen eye for judging a good milking cow�. Dermot was in charge of milking the cows. With no fridges in those early days to store milk, she reckons that their creamy milk kept better. Although the introduction of one stop shopping in supermarkets gradually saw the decline in the requirement for door-to-door milk sales, Draynes farms and milk retailing business has continued to flourish with milk sales to hotels and restaurants. For many years Eileen manually administered about 1000 milk accounts each month. Having recently completed a 10-week �Computers for Beginners� course, she realises that this manual work, which took hours to compile, could now be done in minutes using a computer software programme.

This year, Eileen has been joining in the special programme of events at Magheragall Women�s Institute as they celebrate their 60th anniversary; and at a meeting in Low Quarter Orange Hall last Thursday evening (10th April) she posed with other branch members for a commemorative photograph.

14/04/2008