Mural unveiled in Navan in memory of community champion, Sharon Maher

Youth Work Ireland Meath proudly unveiled their latest colourful mural in Clogherboy, Navan on Friday evening.

The stunning artwork was created over several weeks during the summer by local youngsters with community and inclusion at its heart and was dedicated to Navan youth worker and community champion, Sharon Maher who sadly passed away in October 2023.

Sharon's mother Kathleen, sister, Kay and brother, Martin were on hand to see the 30 metre long mural revealed and one that easily catches the eye as you travel though the Clogherboy estate.

Geraldine Hoggart of Youth Work Ireland Meath told those gathered including many of the children who had spent hours creating the new artwork how the original mural idea came together as part of the Youth and Community Development Programme, when YWIM were asked if it could paint a piece of blank wall that borders the green area of Clogherboy estate.

"Sharon and a team of young people spent an awful long time doing the beautiful piece of work that was here, which depicted everything that was happening in the town. And what Navan was best for with its schools, with its community.

"We then approached the family and we asked them if they wouldn't mind if we enhanced what Sharon and her young people had done at the time.

"We got support from from the council, the Department of Education and Youth, from partners involved, the people in the estate here beside us who were an absolute godsend to Gordon (Meehan, of YWIM) and the team when they were bringing up all the paints, the goodies, the sweets and all of that. So they came out and they did what they always do, and they come out and they just got stuck in and gave a hand.

"It's just a pleasure to see such ambition and such quality and all it represents, you know, it represents Sharon, the community and represents our young people and everybody involved in it.

The mural's creation was particularly poignant for the late Sharon Maher's family who were in attendance in Clogherboy.

"Sharon was so community minded and she turned herself into everything," said sister Kay McCabe.

"She was on the St Patrick's Day committee, she was a teacher, she was an artist, she was a community champion, as they say, so she's she's a big loss.

"It's big shock to us when she she died so young, no warning or anything. So we're still reeling from it nearly two years later. So when the community does things it's a lovely tribute and it's wonderful that artist Anna Doggett, a great friend to Sharon was involved in the project. So it's it's lovely, it's fabulous. And after Sharon passed away, we knew that we weren't the only ones who loved her, she was lovely by a lot of people."