Cork community centre 20 years in the making is set to open its doors

WHEN Clonakilty’s new community youth centre opens its doors to the public for the first time in September, it will be the culmination of two decades of hard work by the dedicated committee and the wider public in the West Cork town.

Committee member Natasha Sutton says the centre will be the first permanent home for youth services in the wider Clonakilty area.

“In 2003, our co-chairperson Anthony McDermot and the members of the local Foroige club petitioned the town council to try and get a building ring-fenced for youth in Clonakilty and it went on for some time,” she said.

“They eventually secured a building, but unfortunately it was damaged in the flooding of 2012, this is the first time we’ve managed to secure a proper and substantial building for the youth of Clonakilty.”

The building, located on the bypass at Deasy’s Car Park, is a short walk from the town centre and when completed will provide much needed space for a variety of youth services, groups and organisations, as well as giving young people in the town somewhere to hang out with friends in a safe environment.

The fully accessible building will also include a music studio and a lift to allow wheelchair access to the upper floor.

Natasha added: “The whole building is friendly to any sensory issues that people may have, even down to the colours of the floors and the walls.

“We consulted Patricia O’Leary, an expert in the area of autism, and she talked us through all the things we would need to become autism friendly accredited in the future.”

Local councillor Paul Hayes, who has been a committee member since the beginning of the process, says the building that once housed offices for Deasy’s brewery will be a game changer for Clonakilty.

“It was in the town council ownership before it was abolished in 2014 and they handed it over for for the use of the youth of the town, but it kind of went on and on after that,” he said.

“There were a few false dawns in other places, rented privately for €800 or €900 a month, but everything that had been fundraised was being spent on rent. It was never going to be a sustainable model,” added Paul.

“All the while, this was kind of sitting in the background and we had hoped for a bit more interaction, positivity I suppose, from the council, but it really wasn’t until recent years that a fresh committee was formed again and new impetus was given to the project.”

Committee secretary Anne Marie McSweeney says it has been a major effort to get the building into its current condition as it was almost a ruin when Cork County Council handed it over for a nominal rent of €100 per year.

She said: “Anthony McDermott was involved since the beginning and around 2016 a new committee was formed and we took it from there.

“Members of Foroige joined the committee and we’ve been lucky, we gelled really well and we’ve really driven it forward to the stage where it’s at with huge fundraising,” said Anne Marie.

The building remains in the ownership of Cork County Council, but all the capital costs of renovating it and making it fit-for-purpose have been met through fundraising.

In total, the project is expected to cost in the region of €450,000, with €230,000 coming from European Leader funding. Of the remaining €220,000, the committee have already raised €110,000 and hope to secure another €20,000 from another public body.

They will finance the remainder through a loan that will be repaid through further fundraising efforts.

Anne Marie says that fundraising efforts really took off in 2017 when a Tommy Fleming concert was held.

“We held the concert in the local church which the monsignor gave us the use of for free, that was a big event and that was really the kick start for the fundraising as such<“ she said.

“We are still actively fundraising. Some events we have held include churchgate collections, weekly bingo and an annual golf classic; before the pandemic we were also able to do bag packing in local supermarkets and we did a ball run as well.”

The centre is non-commercial and will provide a base for Foroige and the YMCA in the town, with two full-time and two part-time youth workers based in the centre covering a wide area including nearby towns and villages like Dunmanway and Rosscarbery.

As well as a space for the young people of the area, all of the groups using it can focus primarily on their core missions without the continued worry of paying high rents.

The website will also have a booking calendar so users will be able to see all of the rooms and their availability and book online.

Committee member John McCarthy says the project would not have been possible without the hard work of the volunteers and the committed support of the people of the town.

“The fundraising has been the backbone of everything here and there are two big shout-outs for me.

The committee, who have been dedicated to this for the last six years, their incredible hard work has got it over the fence. Secondly, the people of Clonality, what they have done is they have backed a vision for many years before it actually became bricks and mortar, that is something that has to be applauded locally.

“I remember about four years ago three lads were busking in the street and they made €56.16 and they gave it to us as their contribution to this youth centre.

“It is an extraordinary local effort, its a youth centre but everybody took part and it’s been an extraordinary journey,” he said.

A fundraising bingo night for the centre is held every Saturday at 8.30pm in the parochial hall across the road from the church in Clonakilty.