by Helen Shaw – Tóchar Stories

A song comes as easy as a story when you sit down with the Mountbellew Men’s Shed, in Co Galway. On the day we met to do some audio recording of oral history, Tómas Crehan came prepared with his guitar and after a few rounds of storytelling he unzipped the case and within minutes he had the gathering in a chorus of  An Poc Ar Buile. With the recent passing of Sean Ó Sé – whose song that is – it’s lovely to share the men’s warm-hearted rendition of it.

• To watch the sing song please click Here

Tómas has been a member of the Men’s Shed for the last two and a half years and loves the company and the chats. He grew up with music, played in ballrooms, bands and pubs and loves to get a sing-song going.  “My father sang and played the tin whistle and my uncle was a good singer. I was fond of music from day one” he says.

• Listen Here to as Tómas Crehan shares his own story with Katie Smirnova of Tóchar Stories.

Mountbellew Men’s Shed meets twice a week, Tuesday and Thursdays mornings, at the Mountbellew Co-Op Mart where they have a workshop and a canteen. The Galway Living Bog is just across the courtyard and the beautiful landscape of Carrownagappul Bog is up the road. As Kieran Flanagan, one of the younger members says, it’s an eclectic cross-section of every skill and profession from retired garda, academic, vet, farmer, plumber and publican. Kieran, like some others in the group, became involved in the group when health issues changed his life. The men talk openly about how tough isolation is, how the Men’s Shed is a great antidote to mental stress.

Vincent Flynn is one of the founders and says company and friendship is what the Men’s Shed is all about. He says places in a village where people once met, like the post office, bank, pub or corner shop are often closed and gone. “The most important aspect of our Men’s Shed here is that everybody’s on an equal footing. There’s no boss. We come in here and you can chat like we’re doing today and sing, or you can do some work if you want to, but there’s no onus on anybody to do anything but to come in and enjoy themselves”

Most of the men grew up in and around the area and share stories of childhoods captured by work on the bog.

Tom Kenny was just six when his grandmother and uncle used to take him to the bog when they were working. His father had gone to England for work so, as was often the case then, Tom was sent back to the country to be raised in the family home by his grandmother. “I had a great time there; going down to the bog because they couldn’t leave me in the house alone”, he remembers. “I was fascinated. I had never seen bog up to that, and the wildlife too,  there was hare. The bog hare is a different hare. It’s a mountain hare, red hare. There was the skylark too, who kept soaring up into the sky and chirping away.”  By the time he was a young boy Tom was going to the bog on his own, managing the donkey and cart and being sent out after school. “Which was great !” he says laughing. “ I’d get away from school”

Tom Kenny in the Men’s Shed (Photo Helen Shaw)

• Listen here to Tom Kenny on the bog words like caoráns that come from the Irish language
• You can listen to all the Mountbellew Men’s Shed memories, chats, songs and stories on Tóchar Stories Soundcloud playlist here and hear local legend Gerry Rushe, on the very first recording, sharing a poem ‘Changing Times’ that is on display in the Galway Living Bog centre.

That poem, written by local man the late Patsy Cunningham, captures so much of the changing culture from when men like Tom were children, learning the skill of turf cutting and dodging the caoráns (little chips of turf used for starting the fire) thrown in jest.

Tóchar Stories is a community engagement and storytelling strand under Tóchar Wetlands Restoration, an initiative co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Union through the Just Transition Fund in Ireland. Tóchar Stories has been working with the Mountbellew Men’s Shed across the last year.