Limerick sheds

Limerick has long been recognised as one of the hotbeds of the men’s sheds movement in Ireland.

Between city and county, the green-and-white flag flies proudly over 24 sheds.

It was perhaps for this reason that Fulbright scholar Melinda Heinz chose Limerick as the location for her ongoing study of men’s sheds.

Dr Heinz is an associate professor of psychology at Upper Iowa University, and her study will focus on the role of men’s sheds in providing men with purpose and meaning later in life.

Dr Heinz’s research, which will involve link-ups with the Technological University of the Shannon and the Limerick City Library, as well as the county’s sheds, will include a series of interviews with shedders regarding the importance of their home-from-home.

The scholar has been hugely impressed by first-person testimonials from shedders throughout the city and county, and has been a welcome visitor to sheds as diverse as the suburban Dooradoyle Raheen Men’s Shed and Mulcair Men’s Shed, situated in an old creamery in Murroe.

Dr Heinz is a noted authority on gerontology (the study of ageing), lecturing annually at the Gerontological Society of America. While men’s sheds are open to (and frequented by) men of all ages, Dr Heinz is sure to find a rich seam of life-changing stories in Limerick.

Charleville Men’s Shed

Ireland’s involvement with World War I is an issue that stirs up strong feelings on all sides of the debate. However, in recent years, a broader consensus has begun to emerge around the Irish lives lost in the war.

Whatever their motivations, it is now widely agreed that their lost lives should be commemorated. While figures are difficult to pin down, it is estimated that as many as 50,000 Irish soldiers may have died in the war.

The war emptied many Irish communities – urban and rural, large and small – of significant proportions of their menfolk. Each of these deaths was a tragedy and a trauma for families and communities throughout the island.

In recognition of this trauma, and the lives lost, Charleville Men’s Shed embarked on a project of historical commemoration. Inspired by shedder Milo O’Regan, who initially thought of the idea, the shed proposed a memorial to the 63 men and boys from Charleville who enlisted in the British forces and never came home.

After months of preparation, the monument was unveiled on 19 February. Located in the local Church of Ireland cemetery to the rear of the town library, the monument will ensure that those who lost their lives in WWI are remembered in the place they called home.

Reflecting on a job well done from a sense of moral urgency, Milo stresses that the vast majority of locals who signed up for the war did so out of economic compulsion at a time of hardship, while others were looking to broaden their horizons, with little understanding of the horrors they would find in France and Belgium.

Their lives and their names will be remembered forever thanks to the efforts of the local shed.