I love a good meitheal. Growing up I remember men arriving on the farm with pitch forks over their shoulders. They would work together getting the hay into cocks before the weather broke.

A tradition that predates Christian times, a meitheal is the coming together of friends and neighbours in a totally voluntary way to help either a neighbour, friend or the community. While its roots are in the farming community it is now a way to bring together people who share a common goal or interest in achieving a goal.

Over the years I have been part of meitheals that did everything from cleaning up beaches, to painting playground furniture to quilting Christmas stockings for a nursing home. While I was involved in the work at each of these, there is one that I attend every year purely as a spectator. As a former sheep farmer and avid knitter, I really enjoy the Galway Wool Co-op Meitheal in Athenry Mart. The annual event, held every July, is primarily for farmers who breed the native Galway sheep. They arrive with trailers stuffed with bags of wool and unlike most sheep farmers they can expect to get a decent price.

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Over the years we, like most sheep farmers, rarely got enough from the sale of the wool to pay the shearer. This cooperative is changing that trend and giving a value to the lovely wool that comes off the backs of our native Galway sheep.

The huge bags of wool in the grease were weighed, inspected and in this instance, sold to Avoca. Wool in the grease has not been washed so it still has the natural lanolin.The smell of the wool brought back memories of rolling up the fleeces after the shearer with the resultant smooth, but smelly hands.

While the object of a meitheal is to get a task achieved, they are also a great social occasion. What I love about this meitheal is the mix of farmers, crafters and the curious.

When I was at the meitheal last year I was inspired to start a lovely blanket made of squares in different Aran patterns. I’ll finish it some day

There were farmers leaning on pen gates talking about the weather, hurling and other equally important topics. I loved meeting friends from back when we were doing agricultural science in Mountbellew and ex-colleagues from my days working in rural development. I met a friend from the quilting group and chatted with other knitters and crafters. There was, of course, tea from a big two handled teapot, sandwiches and if you were quick enough, lovely lamb burgers.

There were craftspeople and designers with some really special pieces. From rugs to blankets to sweaters to socks, the designs and workmanship were first-class. These are highly skilled and talented people who want to work with natural fibres like wool. When I was at the meitheal last year I was inspired to start a lovely blanket made of squares in different Aran patterns. I’ll finish it some day.

On this occasion, there were also many who were curious about the wool, and others there out of curiosity to see our President Catherine Connolly, and her husband, Brian McEnery. I’m not sure how much time either have ever spent in a cattle mart, but they were perfectly at home meeting the farmers and hearing how the co-op works. As they moved from the bags of wool to the exhibition of crafts they shook hands with young and old and stopped to chat. Despite one of her team repeatedly saying no photos, every phone was busy clicking away.

I always think it’s great that we live in a country where the president can walk freely among us. Yes, there was security but it was never intrusive and no one tried to stop the president as she tried her hand at spinning wool. She also tried on a lovely knitted jacket before finishing her walkabout by joining a group set dancing.

A meitheal is about people coming together to get something done that one person alone could not do. The attendance of our president and Maria Walsh, MEP, is a good starting point but we need more politicians to work with communities to ensure that sheep farming is not overlooked and wool is recognised as a valuable natural resource particularly as the next CAP is being negotiated.