St. Cronan’s ALG inaugural Reading Group meeting in Nenagh Library as part of Ireland Reads 2025
We were delighted to welcome members of St. Cronan’s Asso. CLG to the library yesterday for the inaugural session of our latest reading club.
The guys at St. Cronan’s are regular library users, often visiting for craft sessions and talks etc., and Henry had mentioned that they would be interested in any other events coming up in the library.
So, it being Ireland Reads Week, I suggested a reading group. After all, who doesn’t love being read to? On the day we had 10, plus Henry and Padrena, with the promise of a few more joining us next week.
Because I didn’t know their preferences and we had only 30 mins, I decided to read from a magazine and so fell back on an old family favourite. Does anyone remember the Ireland’s Own magazine from their childhood?
it’s a wonderful magazine, still going strong after all these years, and is packed with stories, interesting facts, jokes, recipes, snippets of history, old and modern song lyrics, even a kids section with games, stories, puzzles and colouring.
I chose two items, the first a story from the case files of Ms. Flanagan Investigates. Everyone loves a good mystery. The second item I read was taken from the ‘Memories’ section and talked of St. Valentine’s Day back when the author was a young girl, in the seventies. This led to a discussion of the day itself, our own memories of it, the excitement of getting a Valentine card, the thrill of realising it was from a secret admirer.
Because one of the main aims of this reading group is to give people a chance to chat and express their opinions it was great to see everyone participate. When it comes to books and reading preferences, there are always those who prefer to listen and who get just as much enjoyment from hearing others speak as those who love to chat and express an opinion. As anyone who runs a book club will tell you, we need both and St. Cronan’s Reading Group is no exception.
Some were very clear that they do not want to read, they just want to listen and that’s fine too. For the moment this club will be a reading club, with me doing the reading and them doing the talking. They spoke about the pleasures of listening to a book on Spotify or Audible, providing the narrator is up to the task. A good narrator will bring a book alive so that they can visualise exactly what is happening.
Next, it was time to find out a little information. Having been introduced to everyone in the beginning, I began by asking people for their own reading preferences, merrily mixing up everyone’s names on the way, much to their amusement. (I know what my homework will be this week.) I like the dynamic of this group, the way they interact – elaborating on each other’s points or clarifying them for me. They enjoyed what I had read to them this afternoon and were happy to give me suggestions as to what we could read in the future. A few were avid Harry Potter fans, (favourite character Hermione) and by the way, could they come dressed as their favourite literary character next week??Yes!! Some had read the Twilight series. Others preferred romance and rom – coms. and I promised to find such books but they had better spare my blushes, if I’m to be reading it to them. And then there was Liam, who liked sports books….and tractors.
For half an hour I got to know this group and was delighted when Henry and Padrena asked them at the end if they wanted to do this regularly. Rapidly realising that I need to up my game next week, by the end of our first meeting I finally felt like I had a handle on this group’s likes and dislikes – yep, if I can put Hermione on a tractor I’ll be golden.
