How Millstreet volunteers are using the healing power of touch in their community

Meet three volunteers who are helping to provide therapeutic hand care in the community while also discovering the ‘stories behind the hand’

Fri, 14 Nov, 2025 - 16:06

Helen O’Callaghan

FOR the bones of five years, Millstreet-based Brendan Murphy looked after his late wife Kathleen — she had kidney issues and was on home dialysis.

“She was well able to look after herself but couldn’t make a hand of the machine. The hospital trained me to do it. There was a bit of work in it but I didn’t mind, we got on with it,” says Murphy, 82, who worked as an electrician.

As Kathleen’s husband, he was considered part of the Cork University Hospital team, comprising a doctor and two nurses, who were looking after her.

“After Kathleen passed away in 2016, one of the nurses said to me, ‘You’re a good man on a team — don’t let the skills you’ve learned here go to waste’,” he says.

For Murphy, who used to massage his wife’s hands and toes to help with her circulation, it seemed a natural fit to volunteer with the Irish Red Cross to do therapeutic hand care. Together with a team of 12 volunteers, he has been providing therapeutic hand care since 2019 — aside from the pandemic years — at Millstreet’s community hospital, as well as at the day centre there.

A second team of 13 Irish Red Cross volunteers provide the service in Kanturk Community Hospital.

Therapeutic hand care incorporates arm and hand massage and an optional manicure, says a Red Cross spokesperson, explaining that the relaxing effect of massage can be very beneficial for people with painful or stiff joints — it can help to improve flexibility and suppleness.

“Therapeutic hand care is physically soothing, but quite often it’s the chat and social aspect that our clients find most beneficial. It’s suitable for people who have a disability, and for those with verbal challenges. It’s a way of communicating through touch,” says volunteer practitioner Margaret Crean, also based in Millstreet, who has been volunteering with the service for 18 years.

“For me, it was a way to do something around wellbeing for older people, and for long-term residents of the hospital. It’s a caring contact — there is power in touch and there’s power in eye contact and in giving people time.”

Describing how the therapeutic hand care process evolves, she says: “With a new client, you introduce yourself and explain what you’re going to do. Trust comes in then, and familiarity — where they look forward to you coming.”

Some clients may naturally be more reticent about accepting the service but Crean has seen people “go from reluctant to comfortable” on many occasions: “I’ve often seen it where you offer to do one hand, and the next thing the second hand comes out.”

In general, each volunteer provides the therapeutic hand care — in the particular centre they attend — approximately once a month for about 90 minutes. The process with each client takes about 20 minutes.

“You might do seven of an evening, sometimes more, sometimes less. What’s important is not to rush through it,” says Crean.

Irish Red Cross volunteers Brendan Murphy, Margaret Crean and Laura Galvin who are part of the Kanturk/Millstreet Red Cross group who provide therapeutic hand care to patients at community hospitals and day centres Picture: Larry Cummins

Murphy explains that volunteers do not travel to clients’ houses: “They come to meet us. And if there’s an occasion in Millstreet, such as Cullen Christmas party, a team of six volunteers will be there that day to meet the demand. It’s very popular and we’d be busy for at least three hours that day. And it’s not all older people — people bring relatives or neighbours to the party and often get their own hands done too.”

He says the benefits of therapeutic hand care are often visible right there and then: “You’ll see someone come in who couldn’t bend their fingers, and after three minutes of care, they can work those fingers. And they’ll say ‘look what I can do! I couldn’t do that three minutes ago’.

“I enjoy doing it. With every person, there’s always a different story – the dog, the cat, the mother or the father. And there are stories behind the hand, like ‘that finger — I hurt it 35 years ago and it never straightened out’.”

With a background in complementary therapies, including massage, Kanturk-based Laura Galvin has been a volunteer with the therapeutic hand care service for 13 years: “I like working with elderly people. Especially after covid, I’ve seen the power of gentle touch help people come out of themselves. Some mightn’t have anyone to care for or to visit them. A gentle touch can help them relax and express themselves.”

Like Murphy, Galvin says she almost always sees immediate beneficial effects: “There’s a bit of upbeat morale-boosting. They love seeing a different person come in. Of course, it’s all new to some.”

The Irish Red Cross volunteers who provide therapeutic hand care are fully trained in how to give a safe and effective hand and arm massage. Training covers bone and muscle structure and how to be conscious of existing injuries or allergies.

Volunteers must undergo recertification every three years.

Aiden Lonergan, Irish Red Cross national director of community support, says human connection is at the core of the organisation’s emergency response and community programmes: “Services like therapeutic hand care not only help to reduce loneliness but also help build stronger, more resilient communities — places where people feel supported, connected, and valued.”

Crean sees firsthand that the benefits of therapeutic hand care are not all one-sided: “Some days I’ve been rushing around. And I go in [to the community hospital] and I get a stillness. My mind stops spinning, and I focus on what I’m doing. I come out with a smile on my face because I’ve spent a nice hour — it has been nice to catch up.”

The Irish Red Cross is inviting community groups, charities, and festivals in Co Cork to collaborate and help bring its health and wellbeing-focused therapeutic hand care service to more people in the county.

“We’re a small team of volunteers, so our time is limited, but we’d love to hear from interested groups. Community interaction, socialising and making human connections is what it’s all about, and it’s so beneficial for everyone,” says Crean.