Enniskillen Sands Support Evening

The Enniskillen Sands Support Evening meets on the second Monday of every month at Fermanagh House, giving parents who have lost a baby during pregnancy or shortly after birth a local, regular place to talk to others who understand what that loss means. Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, runs support groups like this one across the UK and Ireland, staffed largely by volunteers who are often bereaved parents themselves. For a loss that can be difficult to talk about even with close family and friends, a monthly evening with people who have been through something similar can matter a great deal.

What to expect

The evening is set up as a support group rather than a formal talk: parents sit together, usually in a quiet room away from the busier parts of Fermanagh House, and talk as much or as little as they want to about their baby and their experience of loss and grief. Sessions are typically open to mothers, fathers and wider family members, and there is no expectation to have attended before or to keep coming every month. Sands nationally also provides a helpline, an online community and befriending schemes, and local groups such as this one are often the point where parents first connect with that wider network. Grief support of this kind is necessarily led by what the people in the room need on a given night, so the format stays loose by design rather than following a set agenda.

Getting there

Fermanagh House is on Broadmeadow Place in Enniskillen town centre, with parking available beside the building and easy access from the main shopping streets.

While you’re in Enniskillen

Enniskillen’s community hubs, Fermanagh House among them, are where much of the county’s support and voluntary work happens, offering a quiet, central base for groups like this one. There is more to explore across Co. Fermanagh.

Good to know

• Meets the second Monday of every month at 7:30pm
• Venue: Fermanagh House, Broadmeadow Place, Enniskillen
• Free to attend; open to bereaved parents and close family
• Run under the national Sands network, with a helpline and online community also available
• New attendees welcome at any monthly session