‘The danger is we won’t be able to keep going’

The people of Athboy are rallying to save two local community facilities threatened with closure.

St James Hall and the Convent Community Centre could be facing permanent closure in the fallout from ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

The lack of activity in both centres as level five restrictions continue means the facilities have no income, despite the ongoing upkeep and maintenance costs.

Both facilities are run by the Athboy Development Forum.

“Along with everyone else, the closure of the facilities has hit us hard - we're entirely volunteer run,” says Forum chairman, Gerry Cooke.

However community spirit is strong in Athboy and in a bid to save the facilities there will be a concerted effort in March to raise funds to keep the facilities going.

“We are holding a number of events between the 8th and 20th March to raise funds.

“To begin with, on 8th March we are running a virtual table quiz, hosted by quizmaster, Bernard O’Byrne, himself a charity hero having raised well over €100,000 to date from his quizzing.

“We also have a music quiz on 12th March hosted by the McClory family, who ran music quizzes during the first lockdown that were attended by hundreds.”

“A lot of fundraising for the facilities in the past would have involved concerts in St James Hall so a virtual fund raising concert will be held on 20th March which is organised by the Class Act drama group.”

For the three events the Forum is asking people to email athboydevelopmentforum@gmail.com - as they need their email address for the pub quiz and to send the link to the concert, and their phone number for the music quiz, which happens on WhatsApp.

There is a GoFundMe page where people can donate to the Forum, just click here.

More than 60 groups, from Slimming World to Special Hands, from local fitness instructors to the Mens Shed, use the facilities when there are no Covid-19 restrictions,

“Our only income is from hosting these groups and local fundraising efforts,” Gerry explains.

“Both the centres are at risk of permanent closure as a result of the lack of income this last year.

“All those groups pay a set fee to use the facilities which is kept at a manageable level so the cost is not prohibitive.

“Since we have been in level five restrictions, there has been no activity in either centre while there was some activity in level three as there were pods in operation.

“Despite being closed, these are old buildings and need ongoing maintenance and power.

“We are concerned that if the restrictions continue, we will not have sufficient funds to keep them going. We don't operate with huge reserves. The danger is we wouldn't be able to keep going.

“We are very anxious to keep both facilities going which is why we are having this fund raising campaign.

“Athboy being the wonderful community that it is, has always supported the groups and the centres,” he points out.

The Athboy Development Forum is an umbrella body for various voluntary bodies in the town and is responsible for running St James Hall and the Community Centre located in the old Convent School.

“Both facilities have their own management companies and caretakers.

“We are lucky to have caretakers funded by Pobal who have assisted us greatly, especially during lockdown, but it doesn't cover running costs.

“We have between 60 and 70 groups that use both facilities, including sporting cultural and drama groups.

“The Convent Community Centre has a gym and can cater for indoor soccer, badminton and other sports.

“St James Hall has a stage and is used by drama groups and children's variety groups.”

The forum has been running St James Hall since 2008 and the Community Centre, a former school, for the past eight years.

“We are maintaining the buildings with the view to re-opening again as soon as government restrictions permit us to.

“In the meantime we are kindly requesting support from the local community with our running costs. We endeavour to bring back these wonderful amenities for use in the near future.”

There is no entrance fee for the various fundraising events next month but people are asked to donate to the Forum - search ‘Athboy Community Fundraising Draw’ on GoFundme.com