At the Women’s Shed in Raharney, County Westmeath, (back from left) Gabi Marquette, Caroline Leech, Helena Wims, Tess Murtagh, Ann Mulvaney and Geraldine O’Reilly; (front) Ana Luisa Roche, Moyna Staunton, Sue Fox and Nonie Farrelly.

Raharney women 'Step Together' in new shed

The first tentative steps towards setting up a Women’s Shed in Raharney in Westmeath have been taken, and there’s a definite sense of excitement about the move, says local woman Teresa Murtagh, who is among those getting the project off the ground.

Already, it’s proven to have an immense social value: Teresa points out that a lot of people living around Raharney are not native to the area and so are welcoming the opportunity to establish new friendships.

“There’s a lot of women I’ve met at this shed that I didn’t know who live in the area. They don’t live that far from me, but I didn’t know them till we got the shed going – so we are all meeting lots of new ladies.”

The idea of setting up a Women’s Shed in the area emerged earlier this year: “The two terraces Ashcroft and Village Close are in a group together, but we started talking then about getting a Women’s Shed going, so maybe three months ago, we decided just to have a meeting and a few people came and then you know, a few more came,” says Teresa.

More meetings were held, and the women decided to go for it – and thus was born the Step Together Women’s Shed.

“We meet in ‘The Third Place’, beside Raharney Church,” says Teresa, explaining that it is a community facility made available to locals by businessman Shay Murtagh,

Like the various Men’s Sheds that are up and running in various locations, the women intend to have a variety of activities.

“We’re hoping to run classes and to be a place for the ladies to meet for a chat in the mornings. We are hoping all age groups will get into it, young and old.

“In terms of classes, we’re trying to see what the ladies are all interested in.

“At the moment a project we have is that we are knitting a blanket between us, and we’re hoping to get it sewn together in the next week or so and to present it to the Camillians.”

There is a Men’s Shed operating in Killucan: “We’re hoping to meet up with them and get a few ideas off them as well and maybe get someone to come down and maybe show us a bit of carpentry or something.

“At this stage we’re just starting and trying to get the women interested. We are thinking we might also do a ‘taste night’ where we get everybody to cook something and bring it in.”

At this stage, the Women’s Shed meetings are once every two or three weeks, and anyone interested in going along can get in contact with the group by checking out the Step Together Women’s Shed page on Facebook.