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Enable Ireland Coffee Morning as part of ‘Enable Ireland Week of Action’

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Pictured enjoying the coffee morning, photo by Jonathan Baynes for ILoveLimerick.com 2015. Article by I Love Limerick Correspondent Michelle Hogan.

Enable Ireland Coffee Morning took place at Hook and Ladder, Limerick on Tuesday September 15 as part of their ‘Enable Ireland Week of Action’.

Enable Ireland provides free services to children and adults with disabilities and their families.

Their services for children and their families cover all aspects of a child’s physical, educational, and social development from early infancy through adolescence. For adults Enable Ireland offer a range of services covering personal development, independent living, supported employment, social and leisure activities.


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Ann Enright the organiser of the coffee morning said: “We are doing different promotions all week, while it is about fundraising the week is actually more about promoting Enable Ireland countrywide. In Limerick we have this coffee morning and two days of awareness in the Crescent Shopping Centre on Saturday and Sunday of this week where people will hand out leaflets and explain what we do and some of our service users will be there to meet the public. Two church gate collections will take place in Adare this Saturday and Sunday too. It is about awareness this week; we are trying to let people know who we are and what we do. We are based in Mungret, County Limerick and we have 40 service users there. Our fundraising at the moment is for our new unit in Castleconnell where we hope to get the ball rolling before the end of the year. That will be a brand new unit that will house six rest bite places and ten service users. Enable Ireland work with adults and children in Limerick with multi-disciplinary conditions. We have day services and training. The day services are where people with disabilities come in and do projects with us to their capacity. For training they go out of the unit, some go to university and we work to give them more independent living.”

Ann added: “The children’s service covers all of the disciplines right through cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and Autism. They are based on the Dock Road, Limerick. There is a huge demand for our general services. We do outreach where we go out and help children in their homes too. There is very big demand for our adult services but the places are very limited so generally the people with us are offered a two year stint. We don’t have enough resources, that is where the new facility in Castleconnel comes in and that is why we are fundraising and raising awareness, it will give us another ten or twelve places.”

Well known magician and escape artist Steve Spade is an ambassador for Enable Ireland and was at the coffee morning in Hook and Ladder.

Steve was asked to be an ambassador last Christmas after he hosted an event for Enable Ireland at the Lime Tree Theatre. He said: “I was asked to be an ambassador because Enable Ireland are trying to get out there a bit more so I try to use my social media and other bits and pieces that I am doing to highlight Enable Ireland as best I can. It has been great, at first I didn’t know a lot about Enable Ireland but I went out and saw the unit and anyone can make an appointment and go out and see it, it is incredible what they do out there. When I went there at first it was all kind of alien but now they are my mates and I can go have a chat with them. I try to get a few more people from the entertainment industry involved like any singers or other entertainers. It is important to jump in and see it in your own eyes, to see what Enable Ireland really is. Service users have got a live-in area like an apartment living room/kitchen and they can train to live outside of the centre themselves which is amazing because it gives them independents and it really opens your eyes when you are out there, it shows you that you take little things for granted.”

Enable Ireland had their Curraghchase 10km run on August  16 and are constantly trying to come up with new ways to raise funds for the invaluable work that they do.

Check out the Enable Ireland website here.

Follow Enable Ireland on Facebook here and Twitter here.

Read more about Enable Ireland news here.

Photos from the Enable Ireland coffee morning and the Enable Ireland Curraghchase 10km run that took place on Aug 16 2015 photos by Jonathan Baynes for ILoveLimerick.com 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.