Clients and volunteers made the most of the beautiful sunshine this month. There was a lot of activity outdoors in our heritage garden. It’s the ideal location to sit and enjoy some ice-cream after a leisurely stroll or putting on the green or using the exercise equipment. This garden is completely enclosed with a safe walkway all around.

We had music sessions outside this month which brought a real sense of summer to the Centre.

We are delighted to have our horticultural area up and running with the addition of a poly tunnel and raised bedding. So far we have lettuces, tomatoes and cucumbers amongst others sown on specially designed troughs. These ingredients are being used by our catering department. Lovely flowers are blooming in our mobile raised planting beds. For the remainder of the year we will be planting vegetables and plants from seed and with the gentle care from our clients these will be transplanted around the grounds when strong enough. Our catering manager Grey Makoni visits every day to pick from these ingredients for our meals.

John Conroy brought a fantastic sense of fun and enjoyment to his exercise sessions using a variety of equipment to promote health and mobility 

ARTS, CRAFTS, BAKING & OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

Clients took part in a variety of activites this month including brooch making, flower arranging, ceramics, needlepoint, horse shoe throwing, indoor sports and laughter yoga. Mary Woods made beautiful cakes and buns to celebrate the many birthdays held in the Day Centre this month.

Keeping the old tradition of weaving alive we had a wonderful interactive session provided by Geraldine O’Sullivan from Shanon Heritage on our old spinning wheel. The history and materials for this craft were discussed and was a great source of interest

Clients made their own pottery pieces

We had our Afternoon Tea Evenings during which we had great entertainment from Shay Callaghan, Noel O’Donoghue and friends and Bernie McDonald

A knitting project produced beautiful baby’s vests to be sent to the Missions in Africa

The Hunt Museum facilitated an introduction to their service and in addition to providing us with information and a slide show they also brought along beautiful costumes and artifacts for us to enjoy

The Arts Council engaged with us for Bealtaine and provided an Art Work Shop with Lorraine Wall which produced wonderful creative pieces which we plan to make into a collage of everyone’s work

The weather was not kind to us so we had some great fun indoors playing sports of different kinds

We had birthday celebrations and baking demonstrations and combined them both on several occasions to mark those special days for our clients

We were delighted to have Tom and Margaret from Tennessee, USA with us for 2 weeks entertaining us with their music and singing and also Margaret held ‘Instant Water Colour Classes’ for clients and they painted some beautiful scenes.

This project is a collaboration with Deirdre O’Brien Vaughan in which we hope to have various international skilled volunteers visiting our Day Centre and taking part in our daily activities

 Finally, our Clare Rose, Marie Donnellan joined us and was so generous with her time and met with each client and volunteer from her home town of Newmarket-on-Fergus

OFFICIAL OPENING OF OUR HERITAGE GARDEN
By

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins performed the official opening of our
beautiful heritage gardens on Sunday May 12th accompanied by his wife Sabina.
The renovation project was supported with funding from LEADER.   Ralph Wickham who designed the gardens included not only visual but tactile elements as well as Horticultural Therapy units and a Music Garden.   Included in the renovations was the installation of a ‘Tone Zone’ or Outdoor Gym by Murphy Playground Services.  These facilities not only enhance the lives of our residents and those who attend the Day Care Centre but will also benefit the wider community.

President Higgins planted a beautiful rare ‘Bird Cherry Tree’ in Irish ‘Donnroisc’ to commemorate the occasion and unveiled a ‘Rolling  Stone’. He delivered a memorable speech in which he reminisced about his childhood in Ballycar and his memories of the local area of which he is very fond.

Ralph Wickham assists
President Higgins planting
a Cherry Tree.

The Rolling Stone
commemorating the
Restoration of the Walled Gardens.

 Lucy Hastings, former primary school teacher to President Higgins, presented him with a ‘Cedar of Lebanon’ tree to plant in the Aras echoing the magnificent specimen which dominates the walled gardens.  President Higgins spent much of his time meeting and taking photographs with the people gathered much to everyone’s delight. He was very appreciative of the warm welcome he received
on his first official visit back to his old Parish.

A proud teacher with her former pupil.

Sr Christina Welcomes President and Mrs Higgins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musical performances were given by members of ‘Forever Young’ Choir and young  Harpists from Deirdre O Brien Vaughan’s  Irish Traditional Music Institute.

 

President Higgins and Mrs Higgins mingled with many old friends and neighbours.

There was a lot of planting and appreciation of flowers, colour and new life in the centre this month

Clients enjoyed getting involved in pottery making with the assistance of Marie Rice.

We enjoyed the beautiful singing once again of Bernie McDonald from Shannon and we had great traditional tunes provided by Eddie Moloney and Kevin Ryan.

Our monthly tea dance was a great success with Shay Callaghan playing music and our clients, volunteers and transition year students taking to the dance floor

Our art class were producing beautiful paintings and our knitting and crochet group were as busy as usual

Our Intergenerational Project concluded having been in progress since February with the students from St. Caimins School in Shannon. The theme of this project was building a bridge between both generations. Students and clients designed, constructed and painted this symbolic bridge as a project. Another project produced a beautiful gardening collage that represents the flora in our heritage walled garden, the knitting project made a wall hanging and tea cosies as a result of clients teaching the students this traditional skill. The fourth project involved clients passing on the tradition of hurley making and the skill and knowledge of local fishing to the students including how to make their own fishing flies

Our cookery demonstrations were as popular as every and this month Mary Russell and Mary Woods made apple tarts, scones and fairy cakes.