Community comes together for festive project on Cork's Northside

You can see truckloads of freshly-cut pine trees whizzing everywhere around Cork at the moment, all destined for one display or another.

But up at the Hollyhill/Knocknaheeny Community Garden, they are doing it themselves - making their own splendid tree, with enormous numbers of people all getting involved in what is a heart-warming display of community spirit.

At one end of the Community Garden, Robert Sheehan and others of the team from The Men’s Shed, under the direction of Paul Griffin, a community health worker, are building the tall wooden structure which will form the underlying body of the tree, carefully manoeuvring long planks into place and fastening them securely.

In a nearby hut, dozens of women (including Robert Sheehan’s wife, Mary) are busily working away on crochet and knitted squares in every colour of the rainbow, while tutor Sylvia O’Connor deftly sews these together into what looks like endless sofa throws or perhaps scarves for giants.

But that’s emphatically not what they are. These are designed to cover the entire wooden tree being built outside, and the pressure is on to get every single square – plus a few more for safety – stitched in time to clothe every inch of the tree, and have it ready for the big opening and carol service on December 11.

Where did such a great idea come from?

Well, it’s all part of the Niche Community Health Project, explains Yvonne Tsang.

“At Niche, we like to foster a sense of community through a diverse range of activities that promote health and wellbeing for the whole community,” she said.

“This project has provided the ideal opportunity for us to engage the local talents and skills of each individual, and provide a platform for them to showcase their work.

“This is something we are always keen to do, and learning together, fostering new social connections and creating social bonds have been elemental to our weekly sessions on Wednesday mornings.”

Yvonne added: “Each year, we hold a Christmas event whereby our participants help to create something for the festive season, and this year we decided to make our own crochet Christmas tree.

“Our local Knocknaheeny/Hollyhill Men’s Shed are building the 12ft frame which will be clad in around 800 granny squares that our community of crafters/knitters/crocheters have been busy working on since April.

“Our funding for the tree project came out of Social Economic & Environmental Plan (SEEP).”

Many of the older citizens of the area were already well versed in the skill of crochet, but not everyone, and this was where tutor/facilitator Sylvia O’Connor came in.

“We began last April with four sessions with Sylvia to teach people how to crochet a granny square from scratch,” said Yvonne.

“Since then, we have met weekly and created not just lots of squares but also great social connections for our participants.

“It has been wonderful to be able to nurture the sense of community at the garden where we can do a little bit and give back a Christmas event for the wider community.”

One of the ladies working at the long table is none other than Nancy Falvey, long-time Irish Countrywomen’s Association guild member and stalwart of the BtCDP (Ballyphehane/Togher Community Development Project). She is one of those committed and devoted people who run regular crochet and knitting classes in Ballyphehane every week, with many of the lovely items created there going to support the St Finbarr’s Hospital annual garden fete.

But hang on, what’s a southsider doing up here in the heart of the northside? Is this some new cross-border initiative? Nancy laughs.

“You won’t believe it, but I taught Sylvia to crochet years ago, and she was a marvellous student, took to it like a duck to water.

“She went on to volunteer at the Lantern on Nano Nagle Place, and then became an ETB tutor. We’ve always remained friends, and when I knew this was starting up, I simply had to come along and do my bit!

“We donated lots of yarn from Ballyphehane too, to help with the squares they were making. Over the years, you do tend to build up quite a stash, and it was nice to be able to contribute to this great project.”

This is an inter-generational project. 

At another corner of the table is a bright, young school student, Siobhan O’Callaghan.

“This is my transition year, and I had to find work that would be giving something back to the community,” she said.

“I went along to a local charity shop but they said they had someone already. It so happened that Maria Hopkins, the community health worker here, was actually in the shop at the time and she approached me to ask if I would be interested in coming in on this project.

“So I came, and I’ve learned to crochet, and I’m having a great time!”

It is really good having someone from the younger generation there, agrees Maria.

“It was ideal that the day she had for doing community work happened to be the Wednesday, which is when we all meet here. She gets on so well with the older attendees, and they in turn listen to her view on things, and learn from her while she’s learning from them!”

Mary Sheehan explains how they expanded the project so that as many who wanted to could be involved. “There were people who would have liked to be part of it, but couldn’t easily get here each week, so we had the instructions for the squares printed out, and they have been making them at home for us!”

“And of course there was the knotty problem of exactly how many squares we would actually need, and how best to stitch them together to fit the shape of the tree,” added Sylvia.

“We really needed the skills of the maths classes at the local schools to work that one out!”

Yes, it’s a new take on the old exam question, isn’t it? ‘If it takes three people five weeks to build a wooden frame, and 12 people nine months to crochet 800 12cm squares, how do you make a Christmas tree...?’

There were also those who wanted very much to be involved, but who were knitters rather than crocheters. No problem. Sylvia worked out a pattern for them, and now the two crafts are combined in the splendid pieces being created.

Would they be willing to take their project outside for a photo-shoot? No hesitation, they are delighted to get to their feet and take the longest section out into the thankfully sunny community garden to be photographed.

It makes a riot of colour against the backdrop of the city, with smiling and laughing faces above the length of squares that have been painstakingly and lovingly created over many months.

All credit is due to Niche, first for coming up with, and then enabling and developing such warm encouragement to foster local community feeling.

Yvonne Tsang said: “I think the main thanks should be given to the Knocknaheeny/Hollyhill community for welcoming Niche and the community garden into their hearts and giving their dedication to the whole idea and concept.”

Maria is looking forward to the opening by the Lord Mayor on the evening of Wednesday, December 11 from 5 to 7pm.

“The tree will be revealed in all its glory, with the switching on of the lights; we will have the crib, made by the Men’s Shed last year, which we keep adding to, there will be our own local choir, which has been going for several years now.

“Hot chocolate, face painting too,” added Maria. “We’re expecting lots of local families with small children to come along to enjoy it all, and of course everyone who contributed in some way will be proud to see the end result.”

They have even thought of the youngest kiddies too, she reveals, as the day before, local nursery schools will be brought up on a special walk to the community garden to see it all and have their own experience.

They really do think of everything up here!