Joining the hobby lobby

When her family grew up and moved away, Gladys McCann's interest in her garden blossomed. A former army nurse who was based in a field hospital in Burma during the last war, this sprightly 83-year-old has been "a serious gardener" for about 30 years. "You can either have happy children or a nice garden, but rarely both," she says with a broad smile.

McCann grows fruit, vegetables and flowers and like all "proper" gardeners makes her own compost. She is still a keen competitor at local flower shows and earlier this year she was the top exhibitor at Clontarf Horticultural Society's Spring Show in Dublin.

"I enter the shows because I enjoy it and I'm not what you'd call a serious grower," she says. "Before the shows I go around my garden and pick out what I consider to be good and put them in. I don't go in for nursing plants or keeping things covered or indoors. They have to take their chances in the elements."

An award-winning rose grower, Gladys McCann has over 100 varieties in her well-tended garden which also boasts a busy vegetable patch and a nursery area for next year's spring seedlings. "As a gardener you always have to be thinking a season ahead," she says. "Gardening is my main hobby and it's a wonderful way of spending time. If you're feeling cross with the world you can go out into the garden and dig away your anger and frustrations in a great burst of energy. But if you're feeling relaxed and in a quiet mood you can potter around slowly and take your time at things. If the weather's good then I tend to sit down and enjoy the garden and let the jobs wait."

It was as a young teenager that Henry Mangan, an engineer with the ESB, joined the choir of Rockwell College, Co Tipperary. It is an interest which has stayed with him since and with almost three decades behind him as a bass in the Guinness Choir in Dublin, he is still enjoying singing as much as ever.

It's also a hobby which travels well as he discovered when he was seconded to Brussels for three years to work with the European Commission's environmental directorate. "I definitely felt withdrawal symptoms when I moved to Brussels and I wasn't singing," says Mangan. "Then through a contact I heard about a small choir based in a town just outside Brussels. I followed up on this and ended up singing with them while I was there. It was a choir of just 36 voices - quite different to Guinness which has well over 100 people and sings large scale works.

"But it was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. We used to go around and sing in small, very traditional Belgian villages where the local welcoming committee would have laid on tea and buns for us which was very sociable.

"Apart from the music, it gave me the opportunity to speak French and to get an insight into Belgian life and culture in a way that's just not possible from the outside.

"I love the musical side of singing, but it's also a very social hobby. The rehearsals are most enjoyable. Then when you get to the performance itself there's the whole buzz of being part of it and if it goes well it's just a terrific feeling."

Some people choose hobbies that help them to relax while others opt for something intellectually stimulating such as bridge. Bridge demands clear thinking and a good memory and retired mathematician Mary Esson has been playing it for the past 15 years.

"I knew that when I retired I didn't want to be at home all day and I'm not the sort of person who watches TV or likes sitting around drinking coffee and swapping recipes," said Esson. "So I thought bridge would be a good way of keeping my brain active and of getting out a few times a week to play and socialise.

"I love playing the game although I haven't let it take over my life like some people do. It's a game that can be played at all ages and I know of one particular woman who is still playing an excellent game at 93. The people I play with are sociable and I feel that's important. There are some groups who play very competitively to the exclusion of everything else. I'd advise people to shop around to find a club that suits them and the type of game they want to play.

"It does help to have a good memory and a mind that has been trained or disciplined in some way in order to work out tactics. Part of the challenge for me is having a good game whereby even though the cards you're working with might be rotten you can exercise your skill and judgment and play them as well as possible."