Tipperary Age Friendly EXPO

28/06/2024 Age Friendly Ireland | National, Local | Tipperary

On Thursday 20th June Tipperary Age Friendly were delighted to host its annual Age Friendly EXPO in the TUS Campus in Thurles.

This is the 3^rd Age Friendly EXPO held at the college campus. It featured 64 information stands ranging from Council Services including Community, Local Enterprise Office, Tourism, Sports Partnership, Fire Service, Libraries and Museum, Health, Housing, Technology, Family Resource and Community and Voluntary Sector. We had a number of new information stands this year as we grow from strength to strength.

The event included beautiful musical interludes with Rockwell Music Academy and Templemore Active Retirement and those attending danced the afternoon away with John McCormack.

We were delighted to have a brilliant range of speakers also on the day with diversity of topics. Speakers this year included John Lynch Solicitor, Aldo Matassa UPMC Medical, Ciara Farrell Age Friendly Ireland, Richie Molloy Family Carers Ireland, John Lonergan Tipperary Age Friendly Ambassador, Martin Moore Tipperary Fire Service, Neil Dennehy Mindfulness, Michelle Lonergan Irish Cancer Society, Mary D’Arcy FraudSmart and Pat Jones Circle of Friends Tipperary.

This event is the highlight and main activity of Tipperary Age Friendly annually. This event is arranged by the Age Friendly Programme Manager but with strong input from the Executive of the Older Peoples Council. The Older Peoples Council is the voice of older people. Through the Older Peoples Council in Tipperary, older people exercise a strong, guiding influence on age friendly local development and policy making.

240620 6849 — L to R: Marguerite Keating, Mary McMahon, Ann Keely and David Kieran

Mary MacMahon is the Chair of Tipperary Older Peoples Council noted that “This annual event is a brilliant showcase of supports, interests of interest to older people and it provides a great opportunity to network and social engage and enjoy great company , enjoy the wonderful range of refreshments, and to enable attendance Tipperary County Council have provided grants to the community groups to provide buses to attend the event, all of which attributes to a very positive day. I would also like to thank the members of the OPC executive who volunteered on the day to act as stewards and promoted the OPC.”

Tipperary Age Friendly hosted a Road Safety workshop in March and will host our AGM in September / October to get the views of the older people and to elect an executive and also host events for Positive Ageing Week 30^th September to 6^th October.

Fiona Crotty, Tipperary Age Friendly Programme Manager acknowledged the “success of the annual EXPO stems from the participation from the Older Peoples Council in having topics of interest, to the full engagement of all of the stands, exhibitors and speakers. It is an event that grows from strength to strength and we are very fortunate to have the full support of TUS Thurles in hosting this event annually and we look forward to hosting the 4^th EXPO in June in 2025. The hosting of the EXPO is a key annual event of Tipperary Age Friendly, it is an opportunity for engagement, social connections, showcasing supports and services in the county and building membership of Tipperary Age Friendly”.