A PUB is looking after its community with the first of its events for older people this week to support them through the winter months.

Anyone aged 65 or over is welcome to attend the event on Thursday (October 31) at The Shaw Inn on Racecommon Road.

The team have begun a monthly event where they invite everyone over 65 to come to the pub and enjoy the warmth, hot food and drinks, all free of charge.

Landlord, Darren Buckley, said: “We will open our doors from 12 so people can arrive anytime from then. We are expecting this to be busy due to the phenomenal response we have had since announcing our intention to put these events on.

“There will be chocolates on the table and biscuits for you to enjoy with a hot drink on arrival. We will look to serve the food from approximately 2.30pm.

“We are going to play free bingo with some lovely prizes available to be won. Also, everyone in attendance will receive a free raffle ticket with a chance to receive various food hampers.

“Please remember this is a completely free event with no limit on food or hot drinks throughout the afternoon.

“Myself, Kelly, Beth and Katie would like to thank the kind-hearted people who have bought us a tea urn, chocolates, prizes, mugs and cutlery to help with this, you are so kind and we are so grateful.

“Please share this to hopefully enable as many of our special elderly members of the community to get out, meet friends old and new and just have a happy few hours in a warm friendly environment.”

After initially announcing the events online, they received a massive response, with local legend Ronnie Steele offering to provide entertainment at the events.

Darren added: “We are a community-based pub and we’re always trying to do things that can help out people in the community. There’s recently been a lot of talk about the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and I know there will be people in our local area affected by it. So we wanted to open the pub up and put something together for the local elderly people. I think it should be a really good thing.”

There will also be events on Thursday November 28 and Thursday December 19, which will be a Christmas party with a gift for everyone.