The healing garden at Monaghan Hospital has been recognised nationally, after it was named one of four finalists in the Age Friendly Environment category at this year's National Age Friendly Recognition and Achievement Awards.
The project, called "A Healing Garden for Rehabilitation, Dementia & Remembrance for Staff, Families & Friends", turned an outdoor area at the front of the hospital into a space where patients, families and staff can spend time outside. It was entered by Cavan and Monaghan Hospital along with other partners.
One of 36 from 164 entries
According to Age Friendly Ireland, which runs the awards, 164 applications came in when submissions opened in May. An independent judging panel, made up of former council chief executives, a former chamber of commerce CEO and a retired Garda chief superintendent, cut that down to 36 shortlisted projects across ten categories.
The Monaghan garden was listed twice on the shortlist: in the Age Friendly Environment category, which looks at changes to the built environment made with older people in mind, and in the Age Friendly Active Living & Leisure category.
The awards ceremony was hosted by Limerick City and County Council at the Limerick Strand Hotel on 8 October. The Environment award went to the Woodstock Gardens & Arboretum restoration and accessibility project in Kilkenny, and the Active Living & Leisure award went to Dublin City Council's Community Wellness Programme, run with the HSE. Westmeath was named Best Age Friendly Programme for 2026.
Built with community help
Northern Sound reported that local businesses, schools, community groups, patients, families and staff all supported the garden through donations, fundraising and help on site. Lynda McGrory and her team at Monaghan Hospital were central to getting it built.
Laura Waters, General Manager of Cavan and Monaghan Hospital, said: "This national recognition is a tribute to everyone who helped bring the Healing Garden to life." She added that staff "have shown what can be achieved when staff and the community come together with a shared purpose: making the hospital experience better for patients and families", and that "to be named among the national finalists is an achievement that everyone involved can take pride in."
Speaking to the Anglo-Celt in the summer, Monaghan's Age Friendly Ambassador Seamus McDermott praised the hospital manager's leadership on the project. "We have been involved and helped every way we can, but she's the driving force. Things that are improved for the aged, help everybody," he said. Mr McDermott is also involved with the County Monaghan Fund, which contributed to the garden.
Part of a wider age-friendly push at the hospital
Monaghan Hospital is a 'Model 2' hospital. It cares for patients from Cavan and Monaghan who have finished the acute phase of their treatment and need rehabilitation, step-down care or palliative care. The Anglo-Celt reported that it became the first hospital in the region to get Age-Friendly Status, in 2025.
The garden came alongside a refurbishment of the hospital's Willowbridge Ward, which was redesigned along age-friendly and dementia-friendly lines with more privacy, clearer signage and wayfinding, and better infection control. The garden itself is meant to support rehabilitation, safe walking and mobility, meaningful activity and wellbeing for patients, including people living with dementia, as well as giving families and staff a quiet place to remember loved ones.
The garden did not take the top prize in Limerick, but reaching the final four in a national competition puts the Monaghan project among the best of its kind in the country.
