Our vision
At Midleton Men’s Shed, our primary aim is to provide a safe and friendly space where our members can meet, chat, and work on either personal or community projects. Through talking and working on projects either individually or as teams, we hope to assist in highlighting issues around male health, and in doing so prevent the occurrence of issues through raising awareness and education about these issues and how preventable and treatable they are.
Core Values of any Men’s Shed
Honesty and Openness – Everything we do is transparent to the shedders and the General Public.
Equality and Inclusion – Our shed creates a place of belonging, participatory democracy, mutual respect, companionship, and community for all shedders
Leadership – We endeavour to demonstrate and promote leadership in all we do.
Our Story
Our story has been a tough one. We originally formed around 2013, and from then until this year have been moving from pillar to post, from one temporary location to another. Over the eight or so years, there have been trials and tribulations many relating to the fact that we didn’t have a permanent home. In 2019 we had a minor breakthrough. Through happenstance, we were informed of a premises we could possibly have for a temporary workshop. We remain very thankful to Carrigtwohill Parish, and to Fr. Bill Bermingham and Fr. Patrick Winkle for providing us with a temporary workspace. The stables at Parochial House on Station Road in Carrigtwohill was our temporary home through 2019 and 2020. If only this idyllic location had been in Midleton!
Throughout the pandemic, our committee worked with MyPlace Midleton to secure a site for a permanent base in Midleton. We worked with SECAD and Cork County Council on funding.
In July 2020 we finalised an agreement with MyPlace on a site, and within 15 months, we had planning approval, and funding approval. Four months later, we had a steel fabricated shed on-site in Midleton. It took a few more months to make it habitable. Even though the shed will remain a project for the foreseeable future, we are ‘moved in’ and incredibly delighted to have our own permanent home in the heart of Midleton Town.
Our new shed will continue to be our Big Project for the moment, however, since 2017 we’ve been involved in a number of community Projects. We hope to continue with more of these into the future. Below is a selection of the projects we have worked on.
Momentum
What a great word – Momentum. The word is so positive. It conjures up feelings of progress, motion, thrust, forward pace, impetus, drive, positive movement towards an important goal.
We are getting places with the Midleton Men’s Shed. We have momentum. It has been growing since we opened our new shed in 2022. It feels as though we are utilizing the shed, have lots of activity, we have grown our membership, but we still have lots of time to drink tea and chat.
Some of the varied things we do are woodwork in our workshop, growing vegetable in our raised beds and polytunnel, Tai Chi, chair yoga, playing on our pool table (which is proving to be massively popular, darts, indoor bowling, playing cards, pitch & putt, ukulele, sing-songs, trips away on the Gara community bus, visiting other shed, hosting visits from other sheds, health checks, drinking tea and eating biscuits. We will do others as time goes on. You don’t have to be good at any of these to take part. The Men’s Shed is not about competition.
We will keep tipping away at the community based & personal projects in which we are involved, in the meantime. We get tremendous satisfaction from this work. We have a growing & well-deserved reputation the work that we do. The men take great pride in their work and that is evident from the quality of what we do.
It is important to add that the shed is not just about projects or producing stuff. The shed is also a place of refuge for men, away from the normal daily toil. Debate & discussion are encouraged – we frequently solve all the problems of the world, over the course of every morning. No one is under pressure to do any more than that. Bring what you have to the shed. For many, that’s just their sheer presence. Be yourself. And that is just fine. The shed just wants you to feel like you belong there. We have some groundh rules, but nothing more than plain common sense. The shed is there for you to enjoy. Again, what have you got to lose?
Flood Doors
In 2017 with funding from the Sisters of Mercy in Cork, we purchased and installed a number of flood doors in vulnerable houses around Midleton. The house owners were very thankful, and we were delighted to offer this important service to the community.
Stage Set and Stage Prop creation and adaptation
In Autumn 2018 we began working with a local theatre group in Aghada. We assisted with the making and adapting some of the props for the show “Nanny Poppins” which was performed to great acclaim Early in 2019.
We worked with Aghada Centre Theatre Group once again later in 2019. This time we assisted with the set for their show Separate Beds which is was staged in November 2019.
Christmas Lights Projects
In the run-up to Christmas 2019, we were delighted to partner with Midleton Christmas Lights Group. Our task was to provide a Sleigh for Santa which got great use for children’s photographs and playing. We thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and took great delight in seeing the local children enjoying the sleigh. In November 2021 we worked with the committee again. This time we made a carriage for the train they had purchased in 2020. This was a fast turnaround for us but we rose to the challenge and delivered on time.
Bee Lodges
We worked with the Irish Bee Conservation Group through late 2019 and up to February 2020 in making Bee Lodges. These will assist in the conservation of the Irish Black Bees and other species. The Bee Lodges have been situated locally around Fota House among other places.
You will find more updates on our Latest News or you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook where we post regularly.
Our Committee:
At present we have seven committee members:
Officers: Chairman, Pat Lynam, Treasurer, Tim Hoban. Secretary, Seán Hennessy.
Committee Members: Joe Daly, Seán Kenny, Paul Hickey, Malcolm Rodgers.
Next Steps…
To find out more about our projects or if you have a project that we might be able to assist with, please Contact Us
.