I’m so late with this post! On Saturday 24th of February the Irish Lego User Group had our first meet-up!

The venue was great. The meet-up was held in a private area of Costa Coffee on Dawson Street, which is located in a grand Edwardian building in the city centre (very MOCable), and was a great choice for a first get together.  David and Claudia who organised things, were extremely friendly, and made everyone feel really at ease.

Being an AFOL can be quite lonely; globally there’s loads of us, but at a local level, especially if you live somewhere with a small population, we can be few and far between, so meeting other adults who love LEGO was really exciting for me.

A bit about Irish Lego Users Group:

Created in December 2017, while Lug.ie is pretty new it has already amassed over 200 members!

I love the ethos behind Lug.ie. David, who founded it (though he doesn’t view himself as a founder), launched the group as a “genuine community for local enthusiasts”, and as a member I can say that it really does have a community feel. Ireland is a small country, however getting from town A to town B can be easier said than done, particularly if you don’t drive as Irish public transport links aren’t great.  This local thinking means that the group has held meet-ups in Dublin and Belfast, with another planned for Cork or Limerick later in Spring.

It was great to see some builds brought along. We got to see 42078 Mack Anthem (which is HUGE, and surely a feat of engineering in itself getting it to the Meetup in once piece), and David brought along a great WW2 diorama (whose tank saw even more destruction thanks to an inquisitive child).

Which brings me on to a rant, which I’m sure that any if you who participate in LUG events will have seen, and that’s people who let their children run riot with the LEGO builds.

The little boy who broke the tank above was brought into the room by his dad and let stay BY HIMSELF?!? He was about 8 years old and we were a bunch of strangers. As a mum of 2 I can’t even fathom that!?

This little boy is my KFOL, (who is destructive enough but not the boy mentioned above!), whose favourite build was David’s SWAT truck!