Former banks, garda stations, convents to be transformed into community facilities

Former banks, Garda stations and convent buildings throughout the country are to be transformed into community facilities under the latest round of Town and Village Renewal funding.

Minister for Community and Rural Development Heather Humphreys unveiled details of the €18.3 million allocation, which will benefit 99 towns and villages, at the former narrow gauge railway station in Mohill, Co Leitrim, on Friday.

The former station house which closed 63 years ago, is to receive €500,000 in funding and will be developed as a community arts and heritage facility incorporating a hostel.

Paying tribute to the local community who over 30 years ago had raised the finance to buy the historic building safeguarding its future, the Minister said the scheme would help rejuvenate buildings which “for too long have lain idle and have become eyesores”.

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She pointed out that since 2016 the Town and Village Renewal Scheme had assisted 1,300 projects with a total investment of €93 million.

“Many of the successful projects I am announcing today will see vacant and derelict town centre buildings such as old banks, Garda stations and convents transformed into community, cultural and arts spaces,” she said.

The former station house in Mohill is one of five projects in Co Leitrim to receive a total of €1.1 million in funding, with former Garda stations in Dromahair and Keshcarrigan to be adapted as community facilities. Among the other projects included in the latest funding round is a €500,000 allocation towards the development of a remote working hub in the former Garda station in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, while €198,000 was awarded to develop a remote working hub in the old schoolhouse in Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary.