Non Sibi Trip to Historic Workhouse in Ireland

September 23, 2008

Volunteers on the non sibi trip to Callan helped lay the groundwork for a public health center

Nineteen members of the Exeter community – students, alums, staff, parents and family members – traveled to Callan, Ireland, for seven days of hard labor this summer. They worked as a team to clear out the interior of the long-uninhabited Callan Workhouse, built in the 1840s for the area's impoverished.

The workhouse is slated to become a broad-based civic resource, with public health center, library, rehabilitation facilities, therapy center, Heritage Study Center, housing units for the disadvantaged and a Camphill residential center for people with developmental disabilities. The first phase of the project is the primary care center, to be run as part of Ireland's national health service, which will have four doctor consulting rooms, two nurse treatment rooms, as well as conference and physiotherapy facilities. (See more details at Kilkenny People, the local newspaper).

The Exonians were brought in at the initial demolition stage, to remove interior walls and cartloads of debris from the southeastern wing of the historic building.   See a slideshow of the building and trip…

Maggie, one of the younger members of the non sibi team, traveled with her entire family, including her alumna mother and sister, an Exeter student. "Instead of just doing touristy stuff, you actually get to help out which is awesome," she said. "Getting the wall that we were jackhammering to fall down was amazing!" she added. Liz Mullard '77, Maggie's mother, declared the trip "a great experience for our family, to take a vacation in another country working on a project that was meaningful, and that we could all do together."

Patrick Shannon '78 traveled to Ireland with one of his sons. "The work was interesting and gave us purpose," he said. "It was surprisingly fun."

Connections between Callan and Exeter go back to 1979 when Patrick Lydon '68 and his wife Gladys helped found Ballytobin, a Camphill Community for people with special needs. The Lydons have spearheaded the growth of Ballytobin and neighboring Callan Camphill communities into successful programs for approximately 40 adults and children with significant special needs. Each year, two Exeter seniors travel to Ireland for winter term, working with the members of the Ballytobin community and attending art classes at Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent (KCAT), a program founded by the Ballytobin Camphill Community.

"The project was a huge success," says Lydon, who worked with Alumni/ae Affairs to organize the non sibi trip. "It was a task where 'many hands make light work.' It was a lot of lugging, lifting, sweeping, shoveling, wheelbarrowing, etc. The group pitched in with great heart and a wonderful camaraderie across a spectrum from retirees to active professionals in insurance, finance and promotion, to middle-school enthusiasts. A lot of work got achieved! There was also a very nice bonding between local Irish people, who have a complex psychological relationship to the very dark heritage of the workhouse, and a group of enthusiastic Americans. It was a great social bonus for the small town of Callan."

For Lydon, this project will help expand an already thriving collaboration between the local Camphill communities and the larger town. "We are the current owners of the workhouse property. We're driving the project to facilitate developments that will hopefully become owned and operated by other bodies, both public and voluntary," he explains. "We will retain ownership of our own facilities and the social housing units as well as the extensive gardens and outdoor areas."

The Callan non sibi trip got its start almost a year ago, when Lydon, Harold Brown, director of alumni/ae affairs, and Sarah Ream, theater instructor, met in Elm Street dining hall. Brown recounts: "As Patrick described the workhouse and his need for good-hearted labor to complete a vital segment of its transformation, it became apparent to us that alumni/ae might want to participate in this work."

Jan Woodford, assistant director of alumni/ae affairs, said this about her experience as a volunteer on the Callan trip: "It was a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a bigger plan – a chance to do something good for a very special community." 

Interested in learning more?

Read about the non sibi trip to New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina…

Learn more about Exeter's involvement in the Ballytobin and Callan Camphill Communities…

Read about last year's visit to Exeter by artists of KCAT…

Read about Lydon receiving the John Phillips Award in 2001…

Experience Ballytobin through the words of Exonians from the class of '05 and '07…

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