30 year Struggle for Opening of a Local Community Centre continues

As someone who actively campaigned for the Ballinfoile – Castlegar Neighbourhood (& Sports) Centre from 1987 until late 2016, I am frustrated and annoyed this much needed facility still remains closed.
I did not put my name forward for election in November 2016 to the new (with its inclusive representivity constitution) community centre committee as I (and indeed all local activists) felt that the campaign to secure its opening, after years of community activism, protests/lobbying, was finally completed as local residents and councillors were publicly informed by the CEO and other city officials at that month's council meeting in City Hall that the this neighbourhood and sports facility would be open in January. So I expect that all members of the excellent newly elected committee thought the same and were probably expecting to be working primarily on management and operational issues.
In fact it is worth noting that the facility was officially opened by Cllr Frank Fahy as Mayor of Galway City in May 2016. Frank was optimistic then that it would be available to the local community soon thereafter.

Yes, the centre did indeed open in January 2017 but only for ONE day (to facilitate a public consultation on the Kirwan Roundabout). Local residents heard nothing for months, though of course we expected that the community committee were working hard behind the scenes. Then at a public meeting in the Menlo Park Hotel on May 9th, residents and councillors were informed by a city council official that the terms of a management agreement had finally been agreed in principle with SCCUL and that it was expected to be signed off the following week with an opening date in late August at the very latest. So will this new date be honoured? At this stage there is no reason that I know off why there should be delays by the council’s solicitor in agreeing to have the contract signed. If it does not happen soon, I feel that this represents a breakage of trust with the Ballinfoile – Castlegar community and that the protest/lobbying campaign may need to be immediately reactivated.
Photo is from one of a number of regular resident protests on the centre held outside City Hall and the Ballinfoile - Castlegar Community Centre from autumn 2014 until winter 2016.

City Hall, Summer 1989

The Athenry Castles Heritage Looped Cycle Trail

A delightful journey of discovery through a beautiful hidden landscape

of east Galway.

Country Fair Day, Monivea

Tour Times/Dates: 9.30am, Athenry Castle, Sunday June 11th 

Duration: circa. 7hrs

Start location and route: Athenry Castle, continue onto Monivea Bog, to Monivea village, then onto Castle Ellen and finish up at Athenry Castle. 

Organiser: Cumann na bhFear (Men's Shed, Ballinfoile).
Contact: Brendan Smith, speediecelt@gmail.com 
The event is being organised in assocation with Galway Bike Festival and the national Bike Week.

With its largely unspoilt landscape of small farms, hedgerows, stone walls, lakes, bogs, rivers, castles, Gerogian mansions, network of botharíns and villages, east Galway is a largely unknown landscape waiting to be discovered by walkers and cyclists. 

The aim of this pioneering heritage tour is to open up a new heritage route that will allow visitors to experience these wonderful timeless features and environment by way of a leisurely cycle through a representative section of east Galway that could  act as a catalyst in the development of  a network of Greenways.

The circa 30km looped cycle tour will start at Athenry where we will have a guided tour of the Castle (above) followed by walk through medieval Athenry. After our interest of the town's local history is satisfied we travel onto the Monivea Road before turning right approximately two kilometres outside Athenry in the direction of Graigabbey. 

The participants will then cycle through the farmlands and bogs of Bengarra, (above) on into the village of Newcastle, along a botharín through the Monivea Bog with its fascinating flora and fauna; to the Monivea demesne with its collection of historical sites that was for centuries the home of the renowned Anglo-Norman fFrench family, one of the famous merchant tribes of Galway. 

fFrench Mausoleum

This will be followed by a stopover in the quaint plantation village of Monivea. 

From there the tour will continue onto Castle Ellen (above) for a picnic on the lawns of the famed Georgian mansion that was formerly the residency of the Anglo-Irish Lambert family. After a guided tour of the demesne by Its owner Michael Keaney, participants will cycle onto towards the town of Athenry to finish up at Athenry Castle. 

Abaondoned farm, Currantarmuid

Monivea Wood