TV review: Men's Sheds series shows the value of male companionship
Men's Sheds on TG4: LBS men’s shed, Dublin.
When Aodh Mac Fhloinn’s youngest daughter was born with Down syndrome, he was shown how to tube-feed her. “I was brought up on a farm. We had young lambs at home and I was used to putting tubes into lambs and feeding them, so it wasn’t difficult to do,” he explains.
Simultaneously sweet and sad, it is one of the most poignant moments in the opening episode of TG4 series Men’s Sheds, which covers a year in the life of 10 sheds across Ireland.
Donegal-based Aodh describes quitting work after Eibhlín’s birth to care for her – now 17, she also has autism and is highly-dependent. Somehow, Rosses Men’s Shed in nearby Mín Na Manrach came on Aodh’s radar, but shyness, coupled with thinking he was too young and “had no business going”, stopped him joining. “Then they sent me word to come and help run the place. That encouraged me….so I went and I never looked back.”
When he’s in the shed, he doesn’t “think of the time, or what’s happening at home…it’s my own time”.
Aodh’s absolute love and pride in his daughter shines through, alongside his need for personal space and time. By including his story, and that of men like Ballybrack men’s shed member Brian Connolly – who “wouldn’t be here today” but for the shed – the documentary highlights a key learning from the Men’s Shed movement: that certain clichés about men just aren’t true, such as that ‘men don’t talk’.
We see other clichés upended too: the idea that ‘men don’t look after their health’. At Cahersiveen men’s shed, the 70 to 85-year-old members are working out: lifting weights, doing pushups and squats. “We meet twice a week to exercise for an hour,” says Frank Ó Laoire.
Another myth busted is that men don’t contribute in quite the same degree as women to the social fabric. In Galway-based Corr Na Móna men’s shed, members are setting up a public garden, creating a polytunnel. Seán Breathnach says local schoolteachers are thrilled it will give them an opportunity to show children how to grow vegetables.
Daingean men’s shed looks after a local famine graveyard, where up to 10,000 are believed to be buried. Burials continued here until the 1980s, among them unbaptised children who died in hospital. “My own brother is here. I never knew he existed ‘til my dad on his deathbed told me – he died the day he was born,” says Mícheál Ó Conchúir.
This is men getting to the heart of things. The four-part series is a stirring portrait of what the Men’s Shed movement creates: companionship, connection and compassion among men, standing shoulder-to-shoulder as they work and socialise together.
- Men’s Sheds, Thursdays, 8pm on TG4 and TG4 Player
