Moves afoot to develop community and recreational centre in Claremorris

THERE was a time when Ballinrobe people envied Claremorris for their swimming pool and Claremorris envied Ballinrobe for their town hall.

Today, Ballinrobe has neither, but it still has facilities to coach a basketball team.

Claremorris, on the other hand, has a state-of-the-art swimming pool, but nowhere to coach basketball.

Such is the predicament facing local basketball coach Catriona Doherty, who brings a carload of lads to her native Ballinrobe every week simply because there is nowhere to train them in her adopted Claremorris.

She won All-Irelands with Mayo and a county title with Hollymount as Catriona Costello. Now she’s co-chair of a campaign to deliver an indoor recreational facility badly sought after by numerous local groups.

“Claremorris does not have a community centre, which is shocking. It really needs one,” Doherty told a public meeting held upstairs in Claremorris GAA Club.

Claremorris is a town with a lot going for it. Plenty of employment, a growing population and good sporting facilities. Its swimming pool and leisure centre attracts people from across south Mayo while its tartan athletics track is used by athletes as far away as Westport.

However, the now perennial winter waterlogging of pitches and near-total lack of suitable indoor sporting facilities often mean teams have to source pitches as far away as Barnacarrol and Garrymore.

“There is no dedicated recreational space for teenagers, young adolescents, and primary schools,” commented Doherty.

“You go to the schools and you’d be quite shocked to see the facilities they have are not fit for purpose or appropriate for their needs or development.”

In February, Doherty and a group of other locals decided enough was enough and formed Claremorris Community Recreational Centre CLG.

They have proposed a multipurpose sports hall with a viewing gallery from upstairs, function room, kitchen, four changing rooms, a referee room, male/female toilets, a large store room, reception area including office, accessible public toilets, a lift and stairs and three recreational multipurpose rooms upstairs - and a café, potentially.

Claremorris GAA have agreed to give them a site near Alan Feeney Memorial Park. The total project cost is estimated at €4 million provisionally but may rise to €5 million.

The aim is to raise most of the funding through the Department of Rural and Community Development’s Community Centres Investment Fund (CCIF)

The Claremorris Community Recreational Centre CLG has already liaised extensively with local groups and elected representatives, and committees in Moycullen and Newcastle, who received grants of €6 million and €4 million from the CCIF respectively.

However, successful projects must provide match funding of 10 percent, produce shovel-ready plans, a feasibility study, and provide evidence of support from various local groups.

That fundraising campaign will take its first major step forward on February 22, 2025 when Claremorris Community Recreational Centre will stage a Lip Sync in the McWilliam Park Hotel.

The event, which sees participants dress up and galavant to the tunes of well-known songs, has drawn huge crowds anywhere it has been staged.

One need only look out the road to Hollymount, where their Lip Sync - which featured a number of preceding mini-fundraisers - raised over €200,000 for local projects and culminated in an event in the McWilliam Park hotel which drew over 700 people.

“We’re going to be asking all of the clubs, all of the schools and organisations, anyone that’s going to be potentially utlising this facility going forward, to work together to get teams together, acts together, so they can actually fundraise for this and then have a great night, all working together,” said Doherty.

“This is not just for GAA, it’s not just for soccer or rugby,” she added. “It’s for everybody. So that’s why we need everyone engaged in this project. Everyone. The community benefits from it.”

You can find about more about the Claremorris Community Recreational Centre at www.claremorrisrecreationalcentre.ie.