Castleblayney women's support group Blayney Blades came away with the top prize in the Community Wellbeing Initiative category in the All-Ireland IPB Pride of Place Awards at a gala awards ceremony held in Armagh earlier this month.
This year marked the 21st year of the prestigious competition, which organised by peacebuilding charity Co-Operation Ireland. It aims to showcase and celebrate exceptional community development efforts.
The Blades were established in 1995 to support women and their families through education and social interaction.
They co-ordinate a number of projects, one of which - their Health & Wellbeing Project - was the subject of the nomination for the Pride of Place award. This project is now in its thirteenth year and has gone from strength to strength with numbers increasing all the time.
They meet every Thursday from 2.00 - 4.00. The project runs from September to the end of June each year, finishing usually with a celebration of the Summer Solstice with an outdoor event at beautiful Lough Muckno. Blayney Blades Manager is Lorraine Cunningham and Ronan Gargan has been speaking to Lorraine about the group and how it has evolved over the last three decades.
