O’Mahony turns sod for new extension to Cúram Family Centre

O’Mahony turns sod for new extension to Cúram Family Centre in Claremorris


Austin Garvin

Mr John O’Mahony, TD, was on hand on Friday morning last to turn the sod for the proposed new extension to the Cúram Family Centre, Claremorris. Cúram was established in 1989 and has since been delivering services and supports to the local community. Cúram provides a caring and confidential environment where individuals, families and groups can empower themselves through education, training and information.
Such was the response to the services and supports provided that by 1996 the centre was extended to cater for the growing needs of the community.
In recent years the huge demands on the Centre have escalated to such an extent that another extension was required. Thankfully, the way has been cleared for work on this project to begin shortly, with it to be completed within a nine months- time frame.
Sr Juliet Walsh, a founding member of Cúram, welcomed the news saying, “This is a new spring for Cúram, It’s a long winter come true, wonderful for the local community. It’s new life, healing and a way forward,”
Dorothy Campbell, Manager of Cúram, said this was a special day. “This has been a long drawn out process. We painstakingly went through the various avenues in relation to funding. We submitted a detailed business plan and thankfully we have been successful,”
She expressed thanks for the help and financial funding of Southwest Mayo Development Company and Leader, Colette Jordan, Gerry O’Neill, Norita Clesham, Bríd Duggan, and HSE West. She also thanked the local community for their support down through the years, ClΡr IRD, and her own team in Cúram.
“Without South West Mayo and Leader funding this wouldn’t be possible. Hopefully the proposed changes to the Rural Development Programme won’t go ahead as we believe this would have a detrimental negative effect for community groups like Cúram across Mayo,” she concluded.
Mr Michael Biggins, on behalf of Leader, said, “We’re delighted to fund this project. This is a perfect example of providing Leader funding for people who are doing work for themselves,”
Obviously referring to proposed changes to the Rural Development Programme, Mr Biggins stated, “Our biggest fear would be that a successful model would be broken. It’s very important that the model that’s there would be kept in place. We ensure that the funding is going where it’s needed, he concluded.
Mr John O’Mahony, TD, complimented everyone involved in the new venture, “You do things to the highest standards. You deliver family support to the communities in such trying times. You work totally under the radar, in delivering a message that can’t be told.”
“The people that are running Leader are the people that know it most. They ensure that money is invested where it needs to be invested and the more the better.
“I’m delighted that groups put as much pressure as possible on me. There needs to be services available despite the Troika,” he concluded. 
Mr Tom Merrick, Chairman of Cúram, outlined in detail the proposed extension to Cúram. He thanked everyone for their help and co-operation. Mr Merrick announced that Mr Michael Joyce had submitted the successful tender and was awarded the contract to complete the extension. He said it would take nine months to complete the work and he assured people that there would be as little inconvenience as possible while the work was in progress.