Community Groups Workshops

In County Wexford, a group of men representing several sheds throughout the county met every month for close to a year to exchange stories from their childhood and their lives as adults.  They wrote some of those stories which are now gathered in Stories from the Sheds.

Their stories will take you on a trip to strawberry fields, to the bogs of Offaly,  to Passage East on the ferry; they will take you to Alaska, Jeddah and Ballinaboola. You will taste fresh water from the well, tea in a jam jar, ham and cheese sandwiches on the beach,  Donohue’s lemonade and  Marietta biscuits. If you’re lucky, you will find a garden planted with roses, and will catch a glimpse of children playing Out the Backs.

It was a privilege for Silver Thread to meet and work with craftsmen, teachers, farmers, civil servants, students, family men, storytellers, poets and writers. It was an honour to be entrusted with their stories of life in Wexford and beyond, and to pass them on to you, their readers.  We hope they entertain you, move you, and inspire you to write your own stories.

Stories from the Sheds will be launched in Wexford Town Library by the Mayor of Wexford, Mr. Tony Dempsey, on Friday, September 14th at 2 pm.

We have worked with the CWU for Monday’s Post, a book created by a group of retired post-office workers. Monday’s Post is a book of collected stories and memory snapshots, which brings to life North Dublin in the 40s, and tells of working lives which started at 14, when young lads left school and became telegram boys. The stories tell of playing football in the streets and getting caught by the police, of hard work and schooldays, and of the pride of starting in the job with a new uniform. We are currently working with the Men’s Sheds Association in Wexford; their book will be launched in September 2018.