Although founded in only February 2017, Firhouse Men’s Shed in Dublin already has over 40 members. The fledgling group is really thriving and members undertake a wide variety of activities, explains shed treasurer Patrick Palmer.

The key to attracting new members, Patrick believes, is appealing to different interests, and, once more established, the shed plans to circulate a leaflet locally to indicate the activities they run.

“We are doing quite well, we have several activities set up; walking, pitch and put, painting and some of the men have been doing a woodwork course in one of the local schools in the evening time,” outlines Patrick.

“We had a brain-storming session a couple of weeks ago to see what activities people would be interested in doing. We actually ended up with a list of 20 things. That was really positive.”

Recently, the group organised a very successful Alzheimer’s conference, which was well attended by people in the locality and beyond, says the treasurer. “We work fairly closely with Dublin County Council because they founded us. We hosted an Alzheimer’s conference in conjunction with them …there was great interest in it.”

The shed meets every Tuesday and for an hour before the official meeting some of the men do an exercise class, which they really enjoy. Most of the shed members are around 60 years of age, with many of them retired. Patrick says a Men’s Shed is a great outlet for people who are settling into retired life.

“That’s the whole idea of it, to give people an outside interest – not sitting at home watching the television,” explains Patrick. “There is a social element to it too and we had a Christmas party this year.”

Since its inception, Firhouse Men’s Shed has been using the local Scout Den as a base but they are aiming to get their own premises in the future so that they can expand and increase membership.

Firhouse Men’s Shed is located at Firhouse Community Centre, Firhouse, Dublin 24, and opens every Tuesday from 10am. New members are always welcome. Call 01-4519978 for more information.