Our History

The Evergreen Club can trace its roots to 1958 when a local group of ladies set up the Terenure Old Folks' Club. In April 1959 the club moved to the vacant Roundtown Cafe, above the then Flood's Chemist on Terenure Road North where they had free use of the premises for 10 years thanks to the generosity of the late Miss Flood. However after she passed away the property was sold and so the committee, lead by the extraordinary and tireless Mrs Sheelah Flatman, set about planning a new, purpose built hall in Terenure.

The committee managed to raise £10,000 in donations and loans, including using these certificates to "sell" bricks for the new building! The committee, who were all volunteers and mostly members of the Irish Red Cross, decided that the easiest way to create a legal entity to own the hall would be for the Irish Red Cross to lease the site in Terenure from the owners, the Eastern Health Board (now the HSE), and for the Old Folks' Club to become an independent branch of the IRC. This allowed the Club to have charitable status and benefit from the financial security of the IRC.

The club house was built in 1972 and officially opened in 1973 by Mr. Richie Ryan TD, then FG Minister for Finance and a local resident. The kitchen extension was added in 1981, and the security fencing surrounding the garden erected in 2003.

In the 1990's the Club was re-branded as the Evergreen Club, and in 2017 the Men's Shed was added, further diversifying the activities of the club and bringing in some much needed men!

Today the club is still run by volunteers, still provides a valuable service to the community, and is self-financing receiving no funding from government and only relatively small community grants from Dublin City Council. However we do enjoy the support of DCC who run various activities at the club, including our infamous Tea Dances held every couple of months or so (see the special events calendar on our home page for the next one).

The Evergreen Club is managed by a committee elected annually at its AGM which is open to all members of the club. Currently the Acting Chairperson is Neil O'Reilly, Secretary Fionnuala Blake, and the Treasurer John Grant. The other committee members are Angela O'Duffy, James Fitzpatrick, Joseph McDonough and Ann Moriarty.