During The Emergency, as the World War II period in Ireland is often referred to, you sometimes hear of people who used to knit socks for army troops in the Curragh, for fear they would be needed to defend Ireland’s neutrality.
Listen to "Making PPE for frontline workers" on Spreaker.
In the latest emergency to sweep our country, there’s no army preparing for the frontlines. This time the frontline is made up of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. Sending clothes to keep warm has turned to donations of personal protect equipment (PPE). Irish Country Living speaks to some groups around the country who are helping our healthcare heroes through providing PPE, and another preparing to celebrate when this is all over.
Visors made by Eoin Kennedy.
Eoin Kennedy is a construction teacher in St Ailbe’s School in Tipperary Town. A number of weeks ago he became aware of a design for making visors released by Georgia Tech in the US. With the schools off and having a suitable machine for making them at home, he set to work.
Eoin uses a laser cutter to make the headband of the visor. It can produce up to 30 an hour. The design of the visor is programmed into the machine and it cuts the design repeatedly onto a perspex sheet. A plastic book binding cover is then attached to the headband to make a face shield.
Initially, St Ailbe’s donated the materials they had. This was followed by donations from Johnson & Johnson in Limerick and Tipperary Credit Union. Eoin’s GAA club, Éire Óg Annacarthy, also held a fundraiser to buy more materials.
“We started off just supplying the visors to local healthcare facilities around the Tipp town area. They were quickly taken up,” says Eoin. “Then we put it on the school’s Facebook page and there were more requests. We’ve given them to the hospitals in Limerick, nursing homes, dentists and a local undertaker.”
Last week, Eoin had 1,200 visors made and delivered, and was working on an order of up to 1,000 more. Two other teachers at St Ailbe’s, Denis Keating and Raymond Roche, are helping co-ordinate the requests for the visors.
Eoin says now other schools are contacting them to see how they can manufacture visors.
“It’s been consuming my time for the last few weeks, but it’s a great way to spend it. When the teachers were off, initially we thought we would be of no use healthcare wise, now we’re realising we can help. If the healthcare workers, gardaí and everyone else are going out to the frontline every day, it’s the least we can do to help.”
Josephine Helly, ICA national president. \ David Ruffles
It would be a complete understatement to say that Josephine Helly, national president of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA), is handy with a needle and thread. She just happens to be a genius when it comes to crafts and needlework.
Itching to help with the national effort to beat coronavirus, but not sure what to do, serendipity struck when she got a phone call from Sinead Lawlor, a costume designer who set up Scrubs for Ireland.
“Sinead asked that the ICA come on board and I had no problem supporting her. The scrubs are made to a standard pattern and are directly copied from an approved scrub.”
Some of Josephine Helly's craft material. \ David Ruffles
As soon as Josephine put the call out to her members to get involved in making scrubs, she was inundated with volunteers. “The support was overwhelming. Over 400 members have applied and are anxious to help in any way.”
The way it works is, Sinead cuts out the pattern, and that, along with material for five scrubs, lace for the trousers and tapes for the neck, are sent in a pack to members. 
“We’re asking our members to supply the thread. When the scrubs are made up they can be donated to a local nursing home or sent to ICA Headquarters, Merrion Road, Dublin 4.”
Josephine is hoping to set up delivery hubs in each federation area, from where packs can be sent to members. She has also ordered more material from the UK to meet demand. “I’m up to my tonsils dealing with everything, but it’s great to be able to do our bit.” If you want to help, Josephine can be contacted at 087-661 0640.
Home economics teacher Linda Ennis is another woman who wanted to help in the fight against coronavirus. She found her call to action on the RTÉ Six One News.
“I saw this community group from Clonmany in Donegal making face masks and I said to myself I could do that too. So I made contact with them to see what I needed to do next.” Linda has a strong home economics network, who responded as soon as she put the call out for volunteers. “I had to close the group at 100 volunteers and they’re mostly home economics teachers. I also have special needs assistants, fashion designers and dress makers in the group. Plus I’ve at least 30 more on a reserve list.”
It’s not a lot, but everything we do makes a difference
With fabric shops closed, Linda found it hard to source materials but Clonmany helped out here as well. “Sourcing materials hasn’t been easy and there’s a shortage of elastic. I’ve been able to source white 4mm flat elastic for the 24 volunteers in the Dublin group. I’d love to hear from suppliers who could source more for us.”
Each member in the group can decide who they want to give the finished masks to. Linda will be suppling what she makes to Elm Green Nursing Home in Castleknock, Dublin. “It’s not a lot, but everything we do makes a difference. It would be great if we could do even more to help those who are caring for the people we love.”
The HSE has said at present it has a supply of disposable surgical masks. These are preferred to cloth masks and so there are no immediate plans to use cloth masks in the healthcare setting.
PPE made by the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast.
Almost a month ago, three staff members from the School of Pharmacy in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) started making visors to donate to the NHS. Dr Dimitrios Lamprou, who grew up on an olive farm in Greece, is working on the project alongside Dr Eneko Larrañeta and Dr Juan Dominguez-Robles.
Dimitrios says, after a discussion with healthcare workers, they started to incorporate door openers into their manufacturing. “We had a discussion with healthcare workers to see what they needed. They told us they were opening doors with their sleeves. So we said, ‘Right we’ll find a solution’.”
The team made a plastic hook, hung on a lanyard, to open doors. They’re using 3D printers to make the door openers and the visors. QUB are covering all the costs.
Their primary concern is filling PPE requests from the NHS and any extra then is given to other healthcare centres.
Dimitrios says people are really backing their work. “It’s amazing to see the whole community in Northern Ireland wanting to help. People are sending us materials and also stuff they have made themselves so we can quality control them.”
“Deep under their leathers, every biker in the country has a heart of gold.” That’s Merv Colton’s response when Irish Country Living exclaims, “Wow” at the fact that a group he’s co-ordinating has 450 volunteer motorcyclists delivering PPE across the country.
Towards the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, Merv became involved in Team OSV (open source ventilator). It’s an online movement, firstly looking to develop a low-cost ventilator, but also branching out to tackle other coronavirus-related problems.
Naturally, PPE was high on their agenda, so they partnered with COVID Community Response to allow the public to donate PPE to Irish healthcare institutions. Merv, as a motorcycle enthusiast, knew the biker community could assist with the delivery of PPE.
Almost a month ago, BravoCharlieTango started with Merv and 40 of his friends who were willing to volunteer. The name takes three words from the NATO alphabet to make BCT – biker coming through. Merv then contacted Irish Photo Rally, a group with hundreds of biker members. When they put out a call, volunteers came streaming in.
At 8am they rang us, they had nine boxes of gloves. They were in a Dublin hospital by that afternoon
“Where there’s a donation, we do our upmost to match it with somewhere that is stuck for that thing. We’ve responded to doctor’s surgeries that have run out of face shields and gloves. The first day we got a call from a childminding service in Blarney, Co Cork. At 8am they rang us, they had nine boxes of gloves. They were in a Dublin hospital by that afternoon.”
There are volunteers in all 32 counties and they donate their time and petrol for free. All PPE is collected and delivered the same day. Four people make up the dispatch team.
Merv lives in Kildare, but is originally from a beef farm near Tullamore. He is appealing to farmers to donate spare gloves or masks they may have. If you have PPE to donate, see covidcommunityresponse.ie/donate-ppe or text PPE to 086-180 0256. For any hospitals or care centres needing urgent supplies, email ppedonationsire@gmail.com.
Bunting made children in Doneraile, Co Cork.
While most groups are busy making PPE, Myra Rhyll who owns Town House Café and Interiors in Doneraile, Co Cork, took a different approach.
“It was hard on people as the restrictions took effect and the schools closed, I wanted to do something to make the bad news more tolerable. I have an interiors business, so having lots of material sample books and hundreds of material off-cuts comes with the territory. That’s when I came up with the idea of using them to make lots and lots of bunting.
“I just thought wouldn’t it be wonderful when this is all over and we’re free to go out and about, to celebrate with brightly coloured bunting all over the schools, shops and houses in Doneraile.”
She put a callout on Facebook to local children offering material, a reel of thread and long strips of tape, on a first come first served basis. “The response was massive with 50 local families taking part and more packs delivered to families who couldn’t collect them personally.”
Myra also put her tutorial on how to make the chain lock stitch on Facebook and lots of children responded with photographs of themselves and the bunting they were making. “I reckon we have hundreds of metres of bunting and we’re all looking forward to the day we can use it to celebrate.” Myra can be contacted through the Doneraile COVID-19 volunteer group at 022-24 897.
Read more
COVID-19: communities coming together to stay part
During The Emergency, as the World War II period in Ireland is often referred to, you sometimes hear of people who used to knit socks for army troops in the Curragh, for fear they would be needed to defend Ireland’s neutrality.
Listen to "Making PPE for frontline workers" on Spreaker.
In the latest emergency to sweep our country, there’s no army preparing for the frontlines. This time the frontline is made up of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. Sending clothes to keep warm has turned to donations of personal protect equipment (PPE). Irish Country Living speaks to some groups around the country who are helping our healthcare heroes through providing PPE, and another preparing to celebrate when this is all over.
Visors made by Eoin Kennedy.
Eoin Kennedy is a construction teacher in St Ailbe’s School in Tipperary Town. A number of weeks ago he became aware of a design for making visors released by Georgia Tech in the US. With the schools off and having a suitable machine for making them at home, he set to work.
Eoin uses a laser cutter to make the headband of the visor. It can produce up to 30 an hour. The design of the visor is programmed into the machine and it cuts the design repeatedly onto a perspex sheet. A plastic book binding cover is then attached to the headband to make a face shield.
Initially, St Ailbe’s donated the materials they had. This was followed by donations from Johnson & Johnson in Limerick and Tipperary Credit Union. Eoin’s GAA club, Éire Óg Annacarthy, also held a fundraiser to buy more materials.
“We started off just supplying the visors to local healthcare facilities around the Tipp town area. They were quickly taken up,” says Eoin. “Then we put it on the school’s Facebook page and there were more requests. We’ve given them to the hospitals in Limerick, nursing homes, dentists and a local undertaker.”
Last week, Eoin had 1,200 visors made and delivered, and was working on an order of up to 1,000 more. Two other teachers at St Ailbe’s, Denis Keating and Raymond Roche, are helping co-ordinate the requests for the visors.
Eoin says now other schools are contacting them to see how they can manufacture visors.
“It’s been consuming my time for the last few weeks, but it’s a great way to spend it. When the teachers were off, initially we thought we would be of no use healthcare wise, now we’re realising we can help. If the healthcare workers, gardaí and everyone else are going out to the frontline every day, it’s the least we can do to help.”
Josephine Helly, ICA national president. \ David Ruffles
It would be a complete understatement to say that Josephine Helly, national president of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA), is handy with a needle and thread. She just happens to be a genius when it comes to crafts and needlework.
Itching to help with the national effort to beat coronavirus, but not sure what to do, serendipity struck when she got a phone call from Sinead Lawlor, a costume designer who set up Scrubs for Ireland.
“Sinead asked that the ICA come on board and I had no problem supporting her. The scrubs are made to a standard pattern and are directly copied from an approved scrub.”
Some of Josephine Helly's craft material. \ David Ruffles
As soon as Josephine put the call out to her members to get involved in making scrubs, she was inundated with volunteers. “The support was overwhelming. Over 400 members have applied and are anxious to help in any way.”
The way it works is, Sinead cuts out the pattern, and that, along with material for five scrubs, lace for the trousers and tapes for the neck, are sent in a pack to members.
“We’re asking our members to supply the thread. When the scrubs are made up they can be donated to a local nursing home or sent to ICA Headquarters, Merrion Road, Dublin 4.”
Josephine is hoping to set up delivery hubs in each federation area, from where packs can be sent to members. She has also ordered more material from the UK to meet demand. “I’m up to my tonsils dealing with everything, but it’s great to be able to do our bit.” If you want to help, Josephine can be contacted at 087-661 0640.
Home economics teacher Linda Ennis is another woman who wanted to help in the fight against coronavirus. She found her call to action on the RTÉ Six One News.
“I saw this community group from Clonmany in Donegal making face masks and I said to myself I could do that too. So I made contact with them to see what I needed to do next.” Linda has a strong home economics network, who responded as soon as she put the call out for volunteers. “I had to close the group at 100 volunteers and they’re mostly home economics teachers. I also have special needs assistants, fashion designers and dress makers in the group. Plus I’ve at least 30 more on a reserve list.”
It’s not a lot, but everything we do makes a difference
With fabric shops closed, Linda found it hard to source materials but Clonmany helped out here as well. “Sourcing materials hasn’t been easy and there’s a shortage of elastic. I’ve been able to source white 4mm flat elastic for the 24 volunteers in the Dublin group. I’d love to hear from suppliers who could source more for us.”
Each member in the group can decide who they want to give the finished masks to. Linda will be suppling what she makes to Elm Green Nursing Home in Castleknock, Dublin. “It’s not a lot, but everything we do makes a difference. It would be great if we could do even more to help those who are caring for the people we love.”
The HSE has said at present it has a supply of disposable surgical masks. These are preferred to cloth masks and so there are no immediate plans to use cloth masks in the healthcare setting.
PPE made by the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast.
Almost a month ago, three staff members from the School of Pharmacy in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) started making visors to donate to the NHS. Dr Dimitrios Lamprou, who grew up on an olive farm in Greece, is working on the project alongside Dr Eneko Larrañeta and Dr Juan Dominguez-Robles.
Dimitrios says, after a discussion with healthcare workers, they started to incorporate door openers into their manufacturing. “We had a discussion with healthcare workers to see what they needed. They told us they were opening doors with their sleeves. So we said, ‘Right we’ll find a solution’.”
The team made a plastic hook, hung on a lanyard, to open doors. They’re using 3D printers to make the door openers and the visors. QUB are covering all the costs.
Their primary concern is filling PPE requests from the NHS and any extra then is given to other healthcare centres.
Dimitrios says people are really backing their work. “It’s amazing to see the whole community in Northern Ireland wanting to help. People are sending us materials and also stuff they have made themselves so we can quality control them.”
“Deep under their leathers, every biker in the country has a heart of gold.” That’s Merv Colton’s response when Irish Country Living exclaims, “Wow” at the fact that a group he’s co-ordinating has 450 volunteer motorcyclists delivering PPE across the country.
Towards the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, Merv became involved in Team OSV (open source ventilator). It’s an online movement, firstly looking to develop a low-cost ventilator, but also branching out to tackle other coronavirus-related problems.
Naturally, PPE was high on their agenda, so they partnered with COVID Community Response to allow the public to donate PPE to Irish healthcare institutions. Merv, as a motorcycle enthusiast, knew the biker community could assist with the delivery of PPE.
Almost a month ago, BravoCharlieTango started with Merv and 40 of his friends who were willing to volunteer. The name takes three words from the NATO alphabet to make BCT – biker coming through. Merv then contacted Irish Photo Rally, a group with hundreds of biker members. When they put out a call, volunteers came streaming in.
At 8am they rang us, they had nine boxes of gloves. They were in a Dublin hospital by that afternoon
“Where there’s a donation, we do our upmost to match it with somewhere that is stuck for that thing. We’ve responded to doctor’s surgeries that have run out of face shields and gloves. The first day we got a call from a childminding service in Blarney, Co Cork. At 8am they rang us, they had nine boxes of gloves. They were in a Dublin hospital by that afternoon.”
There are volunteers in all 32 counties and they donate their time and petrol for free. All PPE is collected and delivered the same day. Four people make up the dispatch team.
Merv lives in Kildare, but is originally from a beef farm near Tullamore. He is appealing to farmers to donate spare gloves or masks they may have. If you have PPE to donate, see covidcommunityresponse.ie/donate-ppe or text PPE to 086-180 0256. For any hospitals or care centres needing urgent supplies, email ppedonationsire@gmail.com.
Bunting made children in Doneraile, Co Cork.
While most groups are busy making PPE, Myra Rhyll who owns Town House Café and Interiors in Doneraile, Co Cork, took a different approach.
“It was hard on people as the restrictions took effect and the schools closed, I wanted to do something to make the bad news more tolerable. I have an interiors business, so having lots of material sample books and hundreds of material off-cuts comes with the territory. That’s when I came up with the idea of using them to make lots and lots of bunting.
“I just thought wouldn’t it be wonderful when this is all over and we’re free to go out and about, to celebrate with brightly coloured bunting all over the schools, shops and houses in Doneraile.”
She put a callout on Facebook to local children offering material, a reel of thread and long strips of tape, on a first come first served basis. “The response was massive with 50 local families taking part and more packs delivered to families who couldn’t collect them personally.”
Myra also put her tutorial on how to make the chain lock stitch on Facebook and lots of children responded with photographs of themselves and the bunting they were making. “I reckon we have hundreds of metres of bunting and we’re all looking forward to the day we can use it to celebrate.” Myra can be contacted through the Doneraile COVID-19 volunteer group at 022-24 897.
Read more
COVID-19: communities coming together to stay part
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