BRIGHTENING BALLINROBE Michelle Conroy is pictured beside the mural she drew on a wall close to Ballinrobe’s Cornmarket.
Ballinrobe’s eye-catching murals cause a stir with locals and visitors
Ciara Galvin
ciaragalvin@mayonews.ie
Continued efforts are being made by members of Ballinrobe’s Tidy Towns Committee to improve areas of the town. The latest section of the town to receive attention from the volunteers and members was the town’s well-known thoroughfare, Cornmarket. An unused building beside Supermacs was treated to a mural of a fishing scene courtesy of local artist Michelle Conroy, along with the help of two fifth year art students, Katie Ord and Lauren McDonald.
The scene depicts a fisherman on his boat, an apt scene, considering the town’s proximity to three popular fishing lakes.
Speaking to The Mayo News, local artist Michelle Conroy explained the process of creating the mural and discussed future plans of her involvement with the Tidy Towns group.
“I was contacted by Niamh Coyne, Ballinrobe Tidy Towns PRO and we went through a few ideas, but always reverted back to the boat scene and thought it would be nice,” explained Conroy.
“It didn’t take long, we sketched out the piece and with the help of Katie and Lauren we had it completed in a few hours.”
When asked about her future involvement with the group Michelle was enthusiastic to be of some help in improving the towns appearance.
“I’d be happy to do more. There has been mention of maybe painting boarded up shop windows and I’d be happy to volunteer,” she said.
Stepping up efforts in time for the Tidy Towns judging season, volunteers also completed work on the Parish Centre building. Plans for its transformation started last year with an application being submitted by Tidy Towns Chairman, Tim O’Sullivan to the Dulux, ‘Let’s Paint’ competition.
Following the successful application, the town received 100 litres of paint from Dulux, with the project being completed throughout the recent spell of warm weather.
“We’re so grateful to the Rural Social Scheme workers for painting the two single storey buildings and a special thanks to all the volunteers who showed up on the day to help us paint the two storey main building,” stated Mr O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan commended all involved for their time and contribution.
“It was a real community effort with Tidy Towns members, individual volunteers and representatives from a number of local groups helping out.”
Giving a special thank you to members of the Ballnrobe Musical Society, O’Sullivan noted that without their huge effort the project would not have happened.
Commenting on the help the group have received so far, Ballinrobe Tidy Towns PRO Niamh Coyne is confident that continued improvements are possible.
“Every wall that’s painted, plant that’s planted and piece of litter that’s picked up helps the overall appearance of the town,” explained Ms Coyne.
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