Nine years ago, John and Eugene “adopted” a local landmark in Drogheda and lovingly care for it.
John and Eugene have known each other forever, connected by living in the same town and both serving in the military, but they had no idea just how connected their paths would become.
Nine years ago, the Old Abbey in the heart of Drogheda, which dates back to the 1200s, had fallen into disrepair. It had become a dumping ground for rubbish and didn’t reflect the powerful history of the place. Their project started slowly with a commitment of a few hours but the effort quickly made a difference. “There’s a lot of positive activity in the place whereas you know before we started it was all negatives” they recall.
Nowadays the Abbey is unrecognizable to its former self, thanks to the Guardians of the Abbey, as they’re known. “It’s something that we’re very proud of,” they say. There’s daily maintenance of the plants, benches, stone surfaces and murals. If anything happens to the space, the community knows who contact and that John and Eugene are on it. Monthly, the Old Abbey gets a deeper clean and spruce up.
The community has embraced the Old Abbey and joined in the efforts to keep up the space, “We encourage all the schools to come down Whether it’s painting or whether it’s planting flowers or whatever.” Local businesses have opened in the vicinity and there have been arts and cultural events that have used the space, as well as been inspired to create by the space! “It’s now fully public. On the way home you can look through steps and learn about these or topics related to it” they say.
The two have used social media to help spread awareness of the history and use of the Abbey and to ask the community to get invested in the project. People can help out in any number of ways, even just by learning a new fact, sharing a photo and growing their hometown pride. “I call it community therapy! It’s good for you and good for the mental health, it gets you out of bed. But it’s also good for the community, for everyone who gets to appreciate it” they say. Find your piece of history and get tucked in!
This National Volunteering Week, we’re celebrating the connections and relationships that are built and nurtured by volunteering. We’re building community together.
Thank you to John and Eugene for sharing their story. Please email [email protected] if you’d like to share yours!
