What actually happens at a Repair Cafe?

Coming in at approximately 100 years old, they have long served their purpose but, with every wobble, I can see the retirement lights shining brighter. 

“Not at all,” said Nessa Doran O’Reilly, Rediscover Furniture Programme Manager, and all-round restoration enthusiast. “It’s just a glue issue, usually,” she added. 

It turns out Nessa was right, partly. The chairs can be repaired quite easily. She was wrong on the glue, though. Sadly, maybe 70 years ago, someone made their own DIY repairs to some of these chairs using nails. As anyone who has tried wood-based DIY knows, nails make everything trickier. 

Not a bother though, as in about 20 minutes Nessa had shown my wife and I the basic steps we needed to take to repair each of the chairs. It was remarkably straightforward. Our 100-year-old dining table and chairs were soon given a new lease of life, and all it took was some sand paper, glue, a clamp and, of course, “some gentle persuasion” - the latter of which translated as a chisel and a lot of grimacing.

To my left was a group of kids learning how to repair the gears on a brightly-coloured bike, while the mound of clothes in for repairs to my right seemed mammoth. Interestingly, someone was also helping people through the new reality of no longer having Windows 10 supported on their laptops. Linux, it seems, was the answer. 

Repair cafes bring expert fixers, individuals and community groups together, sharing their skills throughout their community. People gather to repair for free, everything from their favourite bike to their child's toy, from their 100-year-old chair to their ripped jeans. Repairing these basic everyday items is the mainstay for the repair cafe movement. 

Put a Cork in it

"There is a whole generation who don't know how to fix simple things, how to sew a button, how to fix wood, or even how to use wood at all," says K, who set up Cork Repair Cafe a week before the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. 70 people turned up to a hastily organised meet-up, before national restrictions halted it before it really got going. 

A successful grant application in 2022 restarted the movement, and now a few dozen meet up to find ways to mend clothing, furniture and more every month. Insurance is a problem that affects many groups in this space, meaning certain items are not always serviceable at a repair cafe: namely electronics. K is feeling this pain in Cork, but her events, focusing more so on clothing and furniture, are proving popular.

"We knew consistency was important. So we found a venue that could hold us monthly, and through trial and error we found a sweet spot of 2-5 on Sundays," says K. Word is spread through community groups such as Cork Zero Waste, community gardens, Facebook and Instagram. Other ways to find out about repair cafes local to you is to check out Repair Cafe Europe, which maps many of the cafes in Ireland. 

TOG day afternoon

Attendee numbers for Repair Cafes vary greatly. A few dozen in Cork is a few dozen more than some places, a few dozen fewer than others.

"For our most recent event we had around 120 people turn up," says Jeffrey Roe, a software and hardware engineer who also runs TOG Hackerspace, which hosts repair cafes in Dublin four times a year. 

Different to the event I attended in the Rediscovery Centre, or K's variant in Cork, Jeffrey's repair cafe focuses largely on electronics. Kettles, toasters, coffee machines, electric bikes and toys are just some of the items brought along for repair. 

All hands on deck

TOG sees around 20% repeat visitors, but for everybody the rules are the same.  "The person has to sit beside you when the repair takes place," says Jeffrey. Last month, a lady came to his event with a broken mini-fridge. "Here's the screws, here's the screwdriver, let's open this together," he told her. It is the same in all repair cafes. The idea is that you sit together with the fixer, and have the opportunity to learn by doing   

The ability, or lack thereof, to make repairs to everyday items is an enduring issue in Ireland. A Circular.ie survey at Bloom during the summer found that a lack of skills is the dominant barrier to repair in Ireland. Cost featured highly among respondents also, but both these barriers can be overcome by the emerging Repair Cafe scene. 

And while this repair culture has a bottom-up energy about it, there is structural change afoot, also. The European Commission’s Right to Repair Directive is due to be transposed into Irish law by July 2026. 

But where can you find your nearest Repair Cafe? TOG runs its Dublin event every quarter, Cork Repair Cafe is monthly, but there are many more in between.