Community Snapshot: Tea’s up in Killeshin!

A snapshot of a community coming to the boil

Dymphna Maher, a mother of three teenagers, moved to Co. Laois when she married Nicholas Maher from Ballickmoyler on their return from teaching in Japan. Nick is a farmer and cabinet-maker and basically built the Killeshin tea rooms in November 2014, adding his own treatment rooms – he’s also a qualified herbalist! Is there no end to this man’s talents?

Dym and Nick’s two daughters, Cara and Maeve, help in the café after school and on Saturdays, making salads with home-grown veggies and sprouts, serving Dym’s dried herb teas; one of our seventeen nieces, Eadaoin (11) knits toys and Cathy Hogan (Dym’s sister) gives a hand in the café and help with social media, etc. Other goods on sale in the tea rooms are: Nick’s sister-in-law, Julianne’s scones, our Japanese sister-in-law, Atsuko’s professional artwork,  candles in aid of Tir Na nOg respite home, the Bolton family’s jams, to name but a few.

The regeneration of a rural village by this community project is a good news story all round! Each of the businesses is supporting each other in every way – from the Fifty Shades hairdressers next to the music school, opposite the crèche and tea rooms. It’s a win-win for hard-working, positive-minded communities everywhere!

For more information about Killeshin Tea Rooms click on their Facebook page here.