Eslin GAA and ALONE come together for benefit of senior members of the community

The GAA and the charity ALONE recently came together to launch a campaign to benefit the senior members of its communities.

Eslin GAA Healthy Club were offered the opportunity to participate in the pilot scheme for this initiative.

It was offered to a select number of clubs nationally and the event was held recently in Eslin Community Centre.

Stuart Moloney, the health coordinator for Connacht, said the GAA is conscious of how they can have a role in ensuring supports for the senior members of our society.

This is where clubs with the help of the nationwide charity ALONE can offer assistance.

ALONE deal with the key issues facing older people and the impact they have on persons physical and mental health.

The suite of supports and services ALONE provides to people 60+ range from co ordinated support to assistive technology/ phone services.

ALONE have a vision where people can age happily and securely at home and are strongly connected to their communities.

Eslin GAA and their Healthy Club were delighted to be involved in this initiative and set about planning an event for the community. The Eslin community first responders came on board and the Community Gardai were also happy to join in.

On Saturday, April 29 the event was held in Eslin with a large crowd present. Eslin Chairperson Lisa Mulligan opened the event and welcomed all present and spoke about the excellent work of Eslin GAA Healthy Club and all its members

Pauline Rooney, senior project officer and Jessica Gallagher head of services with ALONE delivered an excellent presentation on their work and what is available to people in rural communities particularly to continue to live in their own homes.

Everyone present absorbed this information while enjoying a lovely lunch. It was fantastic to see neighbours and friends together and some new people to the area get a great oppurtunity to meet new people.

Katrina Sheerin from Eslin First Responders gave a talk on their work in the area and launch the message in a bottle system which aims to help the people such as ambulance, gardai and responders to an incident.

Everyone present was given one of these packs for their home.

Community Garda Declan Conway gave great info on their work in the county and he updated all on the new Leitrim Alerts app.

This is a new country wide emergency messaging system with alerts issued on crime, weather, Irish Water, council and community alerts.

You can contact Eslin GAA for more info 0860380801.

Eslin GAA would like to thank all who helped with the event. The Eslin Community Centre committee were fantastic as always.

All the people who baked cooked cleaned made tea, served food and helped things run smoothly. Thanks to John and staff at Bellz Mohill for the catering. Special mention to Cait Reynolds who was so helpful as always. Bernie Mulligan Dolan the chairperson of Leitrim GAA Healthy Club attended and was a great support. Thanks to Tommy O'Dowd from St. Vincent de Paul Carrick for his attendance too.

Finally, thanks to all our senior members of our community for coming along, we hope you had a wonderful afternoon. It was great to see the fun, banter and enjoyment by everyone.