Times Passing, Shinagh House, SWS Co Operative, Bandon

It is with a sense of sadness that I visited Shinagh House on the 10th September last to meet with some of my past colleagues on their last day in Bandon prior to their move to Cork city. I relocated home to West Cork to work with SWS Group in Jaunuary 2000, starting the new millenium with a new career and fresh hopes for the future.

I spent seven years working in Shinagh house at a time of tremendous change within the organisation and established a new department and created new jobs based in West Cork. I remember the enormous pride combined with some trepidation that I personally felt in providing employment to recent graduates while also giving summer experience to students from across West Cork and throughout Munster.

Shinagh House was a melting pot of incredible people; men and women working together in a co-operative in areas as diverse as marketing, IT, agriculatural services, forestry, environmental services, farm relief, accounting, corporate services, auctioneering, recruitment and rural development. It was truly a unique work environment, one that it is unlikely we will ever see again in West Cork.

In the early part of the last decade there were in excess of 120 people working under the one roof in Shinagh House in addition to the considerable numbers employed in the call centre, which was also located on the estate providing much needed trade and business to Bandon town and beyound. Its closing will be a huge loss to the community, one that I deeply regret and wish otherwise.

In memory of my time in Shinagh House I would like to wish all the wonderful people I had the pleasure of working with during my time there the very best.

I was truly fortunate to have met so many incredible people and hope that this will not be the end of days for such a remarkable building and work environment, overlooking the wonderful Bandon river valley with its majestic woodland, green fields and the morning mist rising from the river.