Men’s Shed Hosts Blacksmithy Workshop

A blacksmithy workshop will take place from 11.00am until 4pm on Sunday February 9th in the Cumann na bhFear premises at Sandy Road Business Park, Galway city.

There has been an enormous revival over the last few years in the ancient and time honoured profession of blacksmithing, the ability to create objects from wrought or malleable iron by forging the metal using tools to hammer, bend and cut it.
At the Sunday workshop, participants will be shown how to produce objects such as pokers, rivets and tongs. 

Cumann na bhFear is part of the international Men's Shed movement with both male and female members. The cumann possess a number of anvils, which are the distinctive blocks of iron consisting of a smooth flat top upon which the metals being worked on are traditionally hammered, bent and cut into shape. 

There are a limited amount of places available and pre-booking is required. Fee is 10Euro. So anyone interested, please contact Michael Tiernan at ballindooley@gmail.com

5 Metal Galway Roses for Norwegian Memorial

Olwyn Onions, Michael McDonnell, Richard O'Flaherty & Peter Szászfai with the 5 Oslo-bound Galway metal roses

A bunch of five iron roses forged by a team of four Galway blacksmiths will this month form part of a unique sculpture memorial in Oslo dedicated to those that lost their lives in the city centre car bombing and the massacre on Utøya Island undertaken by the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik in July 2011.

The memorial was inspired by the roses that covered the streets of the country’s capital and carried by 150,000 participants in a march through Oslo that occurred within days of the atrocities in a public manifestation of national mourning towards the eighty five victims of the deadliest attack in Norway since World War Two.

The four Galway blacksmiths are part of the Cumann na bhFear volunteer group which operates a blacksmithy forge at their premises on Sandy Road in Galway city.

According to Cumann secretary Richard O’Flaherty, “Peter Szászfai, a member of the club, had heard about the public Facebook appeal initiated by two Norwegian blacksmiths Tobbe Malm and Tone Mörk Karlsrud, to metal artisans from across the world to send iron roses to Norway. 

So Peter, Olwyn Onions, Michael McDonnell and myself decided to answer the call and crafted five beautiful metal roses that will form part of a unique permanent collective memorial sculpture. The rose is a particularly apt theme as it symbolizes eternal love and well as being the emblem of the Norwegian Labour Party whose members at an island youth camp were gunned down by Anders Breivik soon after he detonated the car bomb in Oslo.

The Cumann na bhFear volunteer group is modelled on the Australian Men’s Shed movement. The primary role of the group is to encourage retired, working and unemployed men and women of all ages to help each other develop, learn and/or teach skills and crafts that can benefit themselves and the wider community. 

For further information on Cumann na bhFear check our their website

Revival of 'Hands-On' Traditional Skills in Ireland

Female and male participants at a Blacksmithy workshop in Galway city

A recent blacksmithy workshop is part of a growing resurgence in Ireland of interest in traditional skills and crafts that were almost wiped out by what seemed an almost unstoppable march towards 'hands-off' modernity during the Celtic Tiger years.

One of the protagonists in this heritage revival in Galway city is the Cumann na bhFear (Irish = 'Company of Men') volunteer group which is modeled on the Australian Men’s Shed movement with the addition of a strong community, social inclusion and heritage ethos in recognition of the interests of the membership.
The primary role of the group is to encourage retired, working and unemployed men of all ages to help each other develop, learn and/or teach skills and crafts that can benefit themselves and the wider community. There is a focus on the provision of practical skills whose existence was endangered by a modern society where the ability to make or repair everyday items was been devalued. Hence the members provide courses and workshops on traditional Irish heritage crafts such as woodturning, beekeeping, woodcarving, basket making, blacksmithing, drystone walling, nature studies as well as other areas of benefit including electronics, web design, cycle maintenance, orienteering, soldering, panel beating, metal fabrication, furniture restoration and plumbing.