Where To Meet People Over 60 In Ireland

Meeting new people gets harder as you get older, especially once you've retired or the family have scattered. It's worth the effort though, for the head as much as the heart. Here are ten ways to meet other over 60s around Ireland, online dating included:

• Join Your Local Active Retirement Association

  This is the obvious one and the biggest. Active Retirement Ireland has more than 500 local groups and around 24,000 members, and the local branches are called Active Retirement Associations, or ARAs. Between them they run outings, courses, card games, bowling, swimming, talks and trips away. There's no minimum age, incidentally. If you're retired or semi-retired you're welcome, whether that happened at 58 or 68. Their website has a find-your-local-group search on it.

• Call Into The Men's Shed

  There are over 450 sheds around the country now, which means there's almost certainly one within a few miles of you. A shed is a workshop where men turn up, make and mend things, and talk while they're at it. That's rather the point of it: it's easier to say something over a workbench than sitting across a table. They run a health programme called Sheds for Life and a bike restoration project, and nobody will ask you to talk about your feelings unless you feel like it.

• The ICA, If You're A Woman Looking For The Same Thing

  The Irish Countrywomen's Association has around 6,000 members across more than 440 Guilds, which is what the local branches are called. Despite the name it's not confined to the country, and the range is wider than people expect: cooking, crafts, travel, talks, competitions and a fair amount of tea. They also own An Grianán in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth, a residential centre running short courses in everything from painting to personal development.

• Do A parkrun, And Walk It

  parkrun is free, it's 5K, it's every Saturday at half nine, and there are over a hundred of them around the country. The important part for our purposes: you're expressly welcome to walk it, and nearly every event has a tail walker whose whole job is to come in last so that nobody else does. You register once, print the barcode and that's you sorted. The coffee afterwards is where the talking happens.

• Join A Walking Group

  Get Ireland Walking has over 600 registered walking groups nationwide and will point you to the one nearest you. For routes, irishtrails.ie lists more than 900 accredited trails, and the ones you want are the Looped Walks, which are short and circular, or the Greenways, which are flat, traffic-free and usually built on an old railway line. Coillte has a dozen forest parks on top of that. Bring the dog if you've one.

• Take A Course, Or Get The Phone Sorted

  If the smartphone still gets the better of you, Age Action run computer and digital literacy training aimed squarely at older learners, and they're used to starting from the beginning. Beyond that, look at the local library, the education and training board, and U3A, which has groups in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and a good few other spots. Learning something in a room with other people is one of the easier ways to meet them.

• Go To Something During Bealtaine

  Bealtaine runs every May and is the national celebration of creativity as we age, with events in libraries, arts centres and galleries the length of the country. It's a genuinely good one for this purpose: everybody there is over a certain age, everybody's there by choice, and there's something in front of you to talk about afterwards. Age and Opportunity, who run it, also run Go for Life, the national sport and activity programme for the over 50s.

• Use The Library, Including After Hours

  Libraries run book clubs, talks and writers' groups, all free. Worth knowing about too is My Open Library, which now operates in over 50 branches and gives registered members self-service access to the building outside staffed hours, often from eight in the morning until ten at night. That makes the library a genuinely handy spot for a first quiet meeting: public, free, no drink involved, and easy to leave.

• The Garden Centre, And The Café In It

  Not glamorous, and none the worse for it. The big garden centres, Johnstown in Kildare, Arboretum in Carlow and Wicklow, Ardcarne in Roscommon, all have proper cafés and are set up for people to spend a couple of hours. Free parking, no pressure, plenty to point at, and open in daylight. As a first meeting it's a good deal easier on the nerves than the pub, and nobody thinks it odd.

• Online Dating

  Last of the ten, and well worth a go. Sites built for older people here, like Singles Over 60, keep it simple, because everyone's in the same age bracket and there for the same reason. You can search, message and take your own time before meeting anybody. One practical thing in your favour: if you're 66 or over you've free travel on the trains and buses, so meeting somebody in the next county costs you nothing but the day. Put a bit of effort into your profile, use a recent photo, be straight about what you're after, and meet somewhere public the first time.

Whichever you pick, it works the same way: turning up more than once is what turns strangers into people you know. Most groups are happy for you to come along and see how you get on before committing to anything, and if the first one doesn't suit, there are nine others above it.

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