A career at the heart of community

Clones Family Resource Centre is marking the end of an era as Manager Angela Graham retires after 11 years. Originally from Drum Village and now living in Scotshouse, Angela has been a driving force in local life since her days with Clones Community Forum. Bringing a strong business background, she applied her skills to social entrepreneurship, leaving a lasting impact across the community. As she steps into a well-earned retirement, Angela is also stepping back from some of her voluntary commitments too.

Speaking to the Celt earlier this month, Angela said: “I’m ready to retire. I’m feeling very content. I made my decision two years ago when I went out to visit my daughter Catherine for a month in Sydney, Australia.” Catherine is a nurse and she had to work when Angela was there.

“We did some lovely things together. But day-to-day, I was on my own. I walked down to the beach with my sunglasses, books, snacks and a towel. I was lying on the beach about 10 o’clock one Monday morning, and it just struck me: ‘What on earth are you doing? Life’s going by and here you are, work, work, work, volunteer, volunteer, volunteer, and you’ve no time for yourself or your family.’ So, I made my mind up there and then that I was going to retire this year. I like neat endings. I started on the 1st of June in 2015, so I’m finishing on the last day of May.”

The Anglo-Celt was invited to Clones FRC, which is located in the business park, just off 98 Avenue. The carpets are soft underfoot and it is beautifully furnished. Angela, who made a point of shopping local, really put her stamp on the place. She is proud of what she achieved there but is happy to hand the reins over to her successor and the brilliant team of professionals at Clones FRC.

Angela Graham and Josephine Treanor were the faces of Clones Community Forum, Angela’s first position outside the business sector in November of ‘99: “I could not understand this concept, we weren’t making money, we had no business. We were paid under Peace I, on a year’s contract and in an office in Fermanagh Street. I said: ‘I hope you know what you’re doing because I certainly don’t.’ And years after, she said she was lost too. We learned together.”

The friends became the go-to pair for all things community and in the unlikely event that they couldn’t help you, they could point you in the direction of someone who could. Josephine is a Catholic from Knockatallon and Angela is a Free Presbyterian from Drum, with Ulster Scots heritage. It may seem like a given now, but friendships across the religious divide even then were not taken for granted.

“People here were curious about us. I wasn’t used to talking about myself. The Good Friday Agreement, or the Belfast Agreement, had just been signed the year before. Things were still very tense in the border region. I felt protected by saying nothing. I’d never been in a room with a Republican before. I’d never met anyone from Sinn Féin.” She admired her friend Josephine’s courage in acknowledging their contrasting backgrounds as something to be celebrated and credits Josephine with having “a lot more sense” than herself!

Angela will remain on the voluntary boards of Clones Credit Union, the Peace Plus Partnership in Monaghan and the LEADER evaluation committee in Castleblayney. She will also maintain her involvement with St Andrew’s Church in Scotshouse. Last year, she was involved in a Sunflower Festival, which made the picture-perfect village even more attractive: “It was amazing, a once in a lifetime event. It wasn’t particularly about the money raised for charities. It was the joy it brought to people. I’ve always wanted to see a field of sunflowers. I never thought it would be around the corner from my house! It brought the whole community together.”

A lover of the great outdoors and being in nature, Angela is baffled at how she ended up in office jobs: “How I’ve ended up behind a desk and sitting in meetings I do not know. I’ve decided the next part of my life will be volunteering for me, because I’ve burned myself out.”

Angela is also an accomplished musician, involved with Drum Accordion Band since she was a child: “I come from a musical family. Generations have been singers and musicians in the Orange cultural scene from back in my grandfather’s time, he played in Drum Brass Band. My father, as a young man, played the flute in Ashfield Flute Band. He drummed probably up well into his mid-70s and then his children, seven of us, all joined bands … but I’m the only one that’s still standing! I love the performance, sharing our music and culture with other people and also enjoying theirs.” Angela’s musical talents don’t end there, as she was a founder member of the Different Keys Choir, a cross-border, multi-denominational choir.

It’s hard to believe that Angela was ever insecure about her ability to bring communities together because now it’s second nature: “I didn’t know what community development was. We did a lot of stuff in Drum, but we didn’t name it. I’d been doing that all my life, but I just didn’t know that there was an actual industry around it and grants that you could apply for.”

Angela was surprised at how much her new role broadened her horizons: “I didn’t realise it until I got into this work.

“I was very curious about people, and I think to do well in peace work, you need to be interested in the other. I’m a people person, the more diverse the better. I got a great kick out of it. In Drum, you didn’t have to have any other experience if you didn’t want it. Then to come to a town like Clones, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

She realised that she didn’t have to dilute who she was to be more palatable, that was the beauty of the cross-community model she and Josephine built together. They became the poster girls for the Peace Programme. Their work had a physical impact on the landscape too: “It took us 10 years behind the scenes to get The Peace Link through, Josephine and I wrote that funding application, because we needed the knowledge of both sides and the relationships we’d formed here in the border area. So, The Peace Link, the Cassandra Hand Centre and Ionad na nÓg, were our big capital projects in Clones.” Clones Community Forum still exists to this day and is based in the Cassandra Hand Centre, a building named after the woman who gave the town it’s world-famous Clones Lace, which was a Famine relief measure.

Angela brought everything she had learned back to her native village and Drum Development began to thrive, spearheading initiatives including Wee Drummers childcare. Having been involved for 15 years or so, Angela is happy to kick off her community development boots and slip into her personal development era.

After nine years with Clones Community Forum, she left Clones for Cavan Family Resource Centre, where she once again managed a Peace project and sowed the seeds for her return to Clones FRC: “That really prepared me for coming here… I was on contracts for 16 years and I was getting older.

“I had three children, Adam, Lewis and Catherine. I had a realisation that I needed something more permanent.”

Although she is retiring Angela won’t be a stranger to Clones, she only lives up the road: “There’s a wonderful community spirit and great humour.

I think it’s a beautiful town, often overlooked.”

Angela can be justifiably proud of everything she achieved during her time in community development, but she grew to love it so much, it wasn’t a chore. She quoted Mark Twain in saying: ‘If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.’

For the day that was in it, she also quoted Henry Grantland Rice, an American columnist, which Angela felt encompassed the Christian values she brings to everything she does: “For when that one great scorer comes to mark against your name, he writes, not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.”

Angela looks forward to a long and healthy retirement spending time with family, including the latest addition Ezra her grandson. She intends to indulge in hobbies such as writing and photography too. “In the last few years, I haven’t had time to be me.

I was either working, volunteering or exhausted. So, I know I need to stop and enjoy the years that remain.”