A golden era of Killeshandra Social Services
The Killeshandra Social Services group celebrated their 50th year in operation last month. It’s quite an achievement to keep an entire community out and about socialisng for fifty years, and the group shows no signs of stopping now.
Mary Keaney has been a member since 1980 and described how the organisation has helped the community. The Tyrone native recalled two to three bus loads going up to Bundoran for a day by the seaside with music and food, not to forget a sing song on the route there and back.
They have also been responsible for organising whist drives, meals on wheels, dinners, dances (particularly the Siege of Ennis with Kathleen Dunleavy), music nights and get togethers with a cup of tea in the town.
A core memory Mary has of her 44 years in the group is dishing out dinner at the Christmas party on the first Saturday in December.
“What I used to find was, and it was so funny, the first fifty got a big feed and the last fifty didn’t get as much,” she laughed.
She recalled the “craic” between herself and Phyllis Murdy as they served the food.
“Go less, we’ll not have enough for them,” she reminisced.
Today, Mary said “there’s a great committee” of young and old members of the community.
“There always was a great committee,” she added.
They recently met in the Lough Bawn Hotel to celebrate their golden jubilee. Mary described what the group means to her.
“When I came to Killeshandra first, the social services really got me to know people.
“I didn’t know anybody,” said Mary, who is now rooted in the community for nearly fifty years.
“What I would have got out of it, even to this day, for the whist drive we all make our own thing. I make the soda bread,” she outlined, adding how members bake an item each - lemon drizzle cake, scones and brack, to be brought on the night.
The whist drive in Killeshandra takes place on the fourth Tuesday of every month in the Focus Family Resource Centre. The Christmas drive will take place on November 26 in the Martin Memorial Hall 8:30pm.
The committee is also calling for old pictures and memories related to the community, which they want to hang in the old Post Office window.
“We would be so grateful to get them,” she said.
Mary thanked everybody who has got involved in the group over the years, particularly those who have donated “very generous” spot prizes” for events they held.