Oliver Callan speaks to The 2 Johnnies ahead of their new TV series

Tómas loves music, he's a big fan of the 60s music, country and folk. and played with bands for many years.  As a member of the Mountbellew Men's Shed he's known for taking out the guitar and starting a session. Katie Smirnova for Tóchar Stories sat down with Tómas after a session in the Men's Shed to get a little of his own story, why he loves music, playing guitar, and how singing songs together in the Men's Shed is "great craic".

Tómas Crehan - Mountbellew Men's Shed with Katie Smirnova  -music mix

Tom Gavin is not long retired and enjoys the company of the Mountbellew Men's Shed. He  loved growing up on the bog and has stories to tell about life and nature then. He understands the changes in how we are using the bog, and shifting to conservation and not cutting turf, but thinks it is hard for olderpeople who are dependent on turf for their fuel with solid fuel burners and without the resources to change their fuel for heating. He will strike a memory with many in Ireland when he talks about the 'parlour' a room that was well-kept with the good china but 'no-one went into' unless the priest was visiting and there was a station mass.

Tom Gavin, Mountbellew Men's Shed

Mountbellew Men's Shed  "The Wild Rover "

Mountbellew Men's Shed in a 'rambling house' session with Tómas on guitar and Michael singing those bass baritone notes as gaeilge.  "An Puc ar Buile" is a beloved folk song from the 1960s about a goat! Here's the lyrics : https://genius.com/Gaelic-storm-an-poc-ar-buile-lyrics

Mountbellew Men's Shed - "An Puc ar Buile"

Jimmy Noone is part of the Mountbellew Men's Shed in. Co Galway and shared his memories of growing up working on the bog : "it was hard work, dirty work" he says but 'great fun, great craic". Jimmy's memories from the 1960s and 70s are of long hot, hard days on the bog, tortured by the midges,  waiting for the mother's coat to go on the back of the door to let them know dinner (usually cabbage and bacon because they grew the cabbage and had pigs)  was ready.  
Tóchar Stories recorded stories with the men in November 2025 in a 'rambling house' style session - In the photo Jimmy is in the blue jumper.

Jimmy Noone,  Mountbellew Men's Shed

Martin Higgins, Mountbellew Men's Shed

Vincent Flynn was part of the group that set up Mountbellew Men's Shed and gives an insight to its origin story three year ago and why networks like men's sheds are so needed in rural Ireland where isolation and loneliness have become a ready in communities where services like post offices, banks, pubs and shops have closed. Vincent is passionate about the men's shed movement - but says what's special about the Mountbellew group is the atmosphere where everyone is equal and welcome - 'there's no boss'.

Vincent Flynn Mountbellew Men's Shed

Tom Kenny grew up with his grandmother and his aunt and uncle "surrounded by bog" as his father was a builder working away from home so as a child , which was very common then, he was sent to the country to be minded and reared. He shares a rich world of tradition, of turf cutting immersed in the Irish language and particular to the region. By ten  and eleven he was driving the donkey and cart on his own to cut turf and remembers vividly the soaring skylark and the wilderness of the land in those days out on the bog.

Tom Kenny, Mountbellew Men's Shed

Michael Ryan, Mountbellew Men's Shed, on his memories of growing up around bogs and the stories he grew up with including that of a buried body from the 'troubles' marked by a hawthorn tree.  

Michael Ryan, Mountbellew Men's Shed

Sean Mooney's late father and uncle uncovered Ireland's oldest wheel technology in the 1960s - a wooden chariot wheel - dated to 400 BC - in a Roscommon bog, near Kilteevan.  Sean shared the story with Katie Smirnova in a community storytelling session for Tóchar Stories. The wheel is now on public display in the National Museum in Kildare Street where you can visit and see many of the ancient antiquities found in Midlands bogs including the bog body of Old Man Croghan. Sean Mooney is on the board of management of Kilteevan NS where Tóchar Stories has worked this year with the children and Tidy Towns Chair Eileen Fahey on a bog butterfly and art project.

Sean Mooney and the discovery of Ireland's oldest chariot wheel in a Roscommon bog

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Oliver Callan speaks to The 2 Johnnies ahead of their new TV series

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