Chair Sonny Murray explains that it was talking with Athenry native, Lorraine Higgins, that set the seed in his head that the town badly needed a community venture such as a Men’s Shed – and thus the wheels started to turn … very slowly. Sonny and Juno Barrett spent a considerable amount of time searching vacant buildings around the town, but to no avail. “One evening at a meeting someone suggested that I should contact Teagasc, on the outskirts of the town. I set up a meeting with Narina Coppinger and Micheal Disken and they were very interested in the venture. They had the ideal premises for the shed in the form of an old poultry house,” remarks Sonny.

Eventually, the shed opened its doors on 12 June 2017 with 15 members, and by the end of the year it had 41. It started off in one unit of the disused poultry unit and akin to St Bridget and her cloak, they now have the use of the entire unit. It was officially opened on 18 November 2017 by Sean Canney, with Athenry Active Retirement Ladies Group providing the catering, a blessing from Fr Benny McHale and special guest, next-door neighbour Joe Healy. A few hundred locals came to show their support and a great day was had by all.

“Our members work on a variety of small projects such as garden furniture, Christmas mangers, dog kennels, flower planters, bird boxes and bat boxes. The first large-scale commissioned job we completed was to make a playhouse for Craughwell National School, and we have also just completed a scaled model of St John’s Castle in Athenry, which won a prize at the St Patrick’s Day parade,” says Sonny.

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The men’s sheds are also in the process of taking care of their social needs: “The plan is to convert one of the rooms into a leisure area where we will have a TV, dart board, board games and perhaps indoor bowling and a drama circle.”

Athenry Shed is open Monday to Friday from 11am to 4pm. If you would like to join Athenry Men’s Shed, please contact Sonny Murray on 087-9024593.