‘Meaningful social connection’ at the Cavan Women’s Shed

The Anglo-Celt Community & Sports Awards, in partnership with Mannok and Kingspan, will take place this Thursday evening in the Cavan Crystal Hotel.

Cavan Women's Shed are finalists for Community Group of the Year...

Cavan Women’s Shed is home to 182 group members, with around half of this number coming to their weekly gatherings.

The nine committee members put their “thinking cap on” and create their timetable of events at least two months in advance, details of which they share with members, who can come to whatever they have an interest in.

“The ladies all know then what’s there and, if they feel they don’t want to go to a particular thing, that’s absolutely fine,” Eithne Gurhy, who is one of the founding members, encouraged.

They organise a range of activities for the members, who are aged 55+, including line dancing, chair exercise, set dancing, quizzes, a visit to the Carraig Gardens, a walk in the Farnham Estate followed by lunch, a boat tour of Lough Oughter, Christmas and Halloween parties, a Grand Canal tour in Clones, book and plant swapping, wreath making and an upcoming trip to Bloom.

“There’s loads of stuff going on,” she said, adding that, on top of this, they also have visits from guest speakers who discussed fire prevention, diabetes, eye care, sepsis awareness, nutrition, gardening, mental health and wellbeing.

Since the group was established in November 2023, the former nurse said the impact on the women in the area has been “massive”. “There’s some of these ladies, it’s probably one of their few opportunities to actually have meaningful social connection.

“You can actually see where people are getting to know each other so much better and they’re chatting away.”

Some of the ladies, Eithne noticed, have started getting a lot more involved in “several” other activities since joining the Women’s Shed.

“I think Covid you see had a big effect on a lot of people,” she said, adding that some “nearly didn’t go out the door”.

“For a lot of women, I can see it has been a massive help.”

Eithne also said the group provides a “great way” for people to showcase their talents.

“We try to get all the women involved in anything creative that they might want to do and demonstrate.

“I think a lot of people just look forward to it every week.”

During the course of her work as a nurse, Eithne would have seen a lot of people who were “isolated” and therefore “always” had the idea of a social group in her mind.

Upon retiring, she enlisted the help of her friend Marion O’Reilly to set up the Women’s Shed, with Lorraine McTeigue from Cavan County Local Development giving them advice “from day one”.

Sixty-two women turned up on that day, when Eithne recalled they weren’t sure if anybody would appear, and the group has grown and flourished since then.

With special thanks to our partners and sponsors in these awards - Mannok, Kingspan, Sherry FitzGerald Declan Woods, Cavan Crystal Hotel, Dovida, Kyte Powertech, CICS Silo Clean and Joe Rowley Windows