Údarás plans Pearse visitor facility

ÚDARÁS NA Gaeltachta is planning to develop a cultural and visitor facility adjacent to the Pearse Cottage at Ros Muc, Co Galway.

The State enterprise authority for the Gaeltacht advertised on the Government's website at the weekend for suggestions on how to make Pádraig Pearse's cottage more attractive as a cultural and visitor centre for tourists.

Pearse, the executed leader of the 1916 Rising, spent occasional summers in the modest thatched cottage where he took the opportunity to improve his knowledge of the Irish language among the local speakers.

He also used it as a summer school for pupils of his Dublin school, St Enda's.

The interior is a reconstruction, following a fire during the War of Independence, but contains a number of mementoes of Pearse, whose rebellion and death are considered to have been a turning point in Irish history.

The cottage is situated between the Twelve Pins and the Atlantic, with breathtaking views of the Connemara lakes. Guided tours of the cottage are available only on request and access for people with disabilities is restricted.

According to the advertisement for expressions of interest, it is envisaged that the centre - which is to be developed adjacent to, rather than inside the cottage - "will celebrate and interpret the life and work of Pádraig Mac Piarais, the Irish Language and an Ghaeltacht".

Suitably qualified interpretative planners who wish to develop concepts for the project are invited to contact Údarás before April 7th.

Following this it is intended that an interpretative planner will be commissioned to work with the design team and an advisory committee on the project.

Údarás na Gaeltachta has not published a budget for the cultural and visitor facility and efforts to contact the authority yesterday were not successful.

Further information is available from Sonya Nic Lochlainn, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Na Forbacha, Gaillimh, or by email at snl@udaras.ie