Shed of the Week: Louisburgh Area Men's Shed

Officially open since spring 2018, the Louisburgh Area Men’s Shed has been keeping busy with projects and shed chair Austin Francis O’Malley believes that “there’s sure to be more in the pipeline to keep them busy”.

Austin and David Gray came together to set up the shed. “I felt there was a need in the area for a shed,” says Austin.

They organised a meeting and they got together a group of men to form a shed.

The shed’s catchment area is very broad and sporadic as it “stretches from Lecanvey to Thallabawn and from Delphi to Drummin”.

There are approximately 30 shed members and all paying members have a key for the shed to visit and work whenever it suits them.

Members vary in backgrounds from engineers to chefs and mechanics, and some are retired. All members are very skilled, interested and committed according to Austin.

Current projects underway in the workshop are the restoration of a Ferguson 35X tractor and a 1900s horse-drawn cart.

Members previously restored an old donkey cart and donated it to Louisburgh Tidy Towns so that it can be used as a flowerbed at the crossroads.

Shed members help out the community where they can, even if it is just painting sheds or anything else that is needed.

They have also organised cooking demonstrations by professional chefs and are hoping to organise a talk by a landscape gardener in the future.

“We are very lucky, we have the site leased for five years,” says Austin.

The shed has received planning permission and are hoping to obtain funding through grants and fundraising to build their own shed on a site they have which is located a quarter of a mile out of the town.

Meetings tend to be monthly, on a Wednesday night for two hours and new members are always welcome. If you are interested in joining contact Austin Francis O’Malley at 087-391 9477.

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