This article is from page 33 of the 2008-06-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 33 JPG
THIS Saturday the women of Gort will rekindle a flame first lit more than 60 years ago. At 3pm the door of the new ICA hall will be thrown open and the public will be invited in to help open the guild’s newly refur- bished building and mark 60 years of the organisation in the area.
The two-story building is the end product of decades of effort. In 1948, two members of the guild approached the local bank looking for a small loan to purchase a rundown cottage on Boland’s Lane. £49 was all it’s cost, but the guild put forward their only employed members for fear they
would be turned down.
‘In those days times were very hard and they had to put in a lot of hard work to pay off the money,” said guild president Nell Giblin.
WON DA Lor UC Mm EIN o) mm NOL SO OME NO Toy Van per: R ote aged to get a second building but over the years they fell into a very bad state. We decided that the only thing to do was to knock and rebuild. So we had to spend six years looking for the deeds to the property before we started building, and now the whole thing has been completed.”
The work was made possible thanks to grants from CLAR, Galway Rural Development and Galway County Council. In addition to this the guild
have raised more than €60,000 to date to meet the shortfall.
With a first rate facility now in place the ICA would like to open the building to the wider community.
“We have a mothers and toddlers group in here at the moment and it is a lovely space for them. The mu- sic school, Coole Music, also use this space sometimes as does the parade committee,” said guild PRO Anne Burke.
“We would love for more things like that to take place in here. We re- ally see this as a valuable community resource. It’s not just for the ICA, we are the holding body but other groups can get a benefit from it too.”
To coincide with the launch a book to commemorate 60 years of the guild is also being launched. The book features memories from the lo- cal ICA throughout the decades and is available locally at a cost of €10.
The official opening of the new hall will take place this Saturday June 14, at 3pm. All are welcome.