Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust AGM on January 26th

The Carlingford Heritage Trust were instrumental in the refurbishment of Carlingford Station House

The Annual General Meeting of Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust and Carlingford Heritage Ltd takes place on Monday January 26^th at 7.30pm at Carlingford Heritage Centre.

An open invitation to attend is extended to everyone living, working and operating a business in the town and to those with an interest in or connection to the town.

Membership is open and all members have the opportunity to be involved in the Trust’s fulfilling work through election to the management committee.

For 24 years, Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust has been the driving force in the preservation and restoration of the medieval town’s iconic structures. Sympathetic development of disused and derelict sites has enhanced the town’s streetscape. Each restoration and development is undertaken to be sustainable and add to Carlingford’s community and business offering.

Since its inception, the Trust has delivered the following projects:

• The restoration of Holy Trinity Church of Ireland as a Heritage Centre, concert and conference venue
• The floodlighting of King John’s Castle
• The refurbishment of The Tholsel
• The development of townhouses with ground floor business potential, apartments and enterprise units on a derelict site on Tholsel Street / Old Quay Lane
• The Children’s Playground
• Publication of an Antiquarians Guide and Town Trails
• A study of Taaffe’s Castle
• Establishment of Carlingford Community Forum
• A partner in the delivery of the annual Thomas D’Arcy McGee Summer School.

In December, the Trust celebrated the official opening of the Station House, which will be occupied by fellow community organisations and enterprises in the coming months. This wonderful asset will act as a catalyst to further development of the area along the seafront. All of these projects have been dependent on successfully challenging for public funding and imaginative fundraising on behalf of successive voluntary committees.

A number of new projects, along with enhancements to those already delivered require the Trust’s focus moving forward.  Matching funding is needed to enable the drawing down of substantial grant aid. An appeal for corporate and private donations is ongoing to continue the Trust’s work and reap the community dividend that Carlingford deserves.

All are welcome to come along and discuss the future of Carlingford’s heritage offering at the open forum on Monday January 26^th.

€1.4m to be spent upgrading roads and footpaths in Dundalk

Part of the N53 at Barronstown which is to be upgraded

A number of the town’s footpaths will be upgraded and repaired as part of proposals by the Dundalk Municipal District for its roads work programme for 2015.

In total 26 different projects have been earmarked for completion this year including road surfacing, restoration, strengthening and footpath repairs.

The total cost of the work would be just over €1.4 million, with a further €1 million earmarked for a 1.3km stretch of the N53 Dundalk to Castleblayney Road near Hackballscross and Rassan on the Barronstown to Hackballscross route. This will be realigned to improve safety, similar to the work that was previously carried out near Fintan Callan’s pub. A further €224,000 has also been allocated to the Barronstown to Newtownbalregan stretch of the same road.

Amongst the footpaths earmarked for repair include the Mill Road to Castletown Cottages, Beechmount Drive, the Castletown Road and Park Street.

The most expensive job at €185,000 is road repairs to a 1km stretch of the Inner Relief Road in Dundalk, followed by a 500 metre stretch at the Bush, which will cost €112,500.

A further €100,000 will also go towards repairs on the Castletown Road.

Other areas earmarked for an upgrade include Maghereagh Cross to Belrobin, Mullabohy Cross to Knockbridge, Rathcor, Grange, Roche Cross to Killin Cross, Dunmahon Cross to the Fane River, the Rock Road in Blackrock, Edentubber, Tullaghomeath, Crossalaney, Legion Avenue and Culhane Street junction, Park Villas and Chapel Street.

The projects will be able to proceed subject to approval.

In total €2.21m has been allocated to Louth’s roads for the coming year by the National Roads Authority. A further €600,000 will be spent on road improvements at Blakestown Cross on the main Dublin-Derry route on the N52, while work will also take place on the Ardee by-pass.

Drumshallon Forge restoration project receives grant aid of €188,000

At the Drumshallon Forge were from left to right: Tony McCready (Louth Leader Partnership), Michael Farrell, Barry McGahon, Pat Bellew, Frank O’Brien (Louth Leader Partnership), Patricia McAllister, Pat Dillon, Mary O’Neill (Louth Leader Partnership), Jacinta Dillon, Philip King, Maria Callery and Tony Callery. Missing from photo are Fr. Michael Hickey, Gary Geoghegan, William Harmon and Mark Callery.

The Drumshallon Forge restoration project has received €188,055.28 in grant aid from Louth Leader Partnership (LLP).

Louth Leader Partnership initially funded a feasibility study to see if redeveloping the 400 year old forge at Drumshallon, Monasterboice was possible and to examine its potential. The LLP board members visited the project last week and Frank O’Brien, Vice Chairman of LLP welcomed the award, commended the voluntary committee and looked forward to visiting the finished project.

The award of €188,055.28,  provided under the Conversation and Upgrading of the Rural Heritage measure of the Rural Development Programme, was formally signed over on Tuesday 17th September and it will be used to restore the forge to full working capability and convert the house and the outhouses to a museum / visitor centre, community meeting rooms and a tea room. The three outhouses will be refurbished to allow complementary craftspeople like potters, stone carvers,  wood turners etc. to set up a workshop. Any local artists or craft workers who are interested in getting involved should contact any of the committee members.

Refurbishment work will be starting very shortly, overseen by the committee and by architect Ian Smyth, originally from Killineer, now working in Dublin. It is hoped that the work will be completed by the end of May 2014. When finished, the working forge, the visitor and the craft centre will attract tourists, school tours and will be a training and heritage resource for the whole community. Ancient smithing skills, handed down through the generations will be saved and the old forge will become a resource for the whole community. These skills are an important part of our rural heritage and they are useful and practical skills to have available in any community.

Frank O’Brien, Vice Chairman LLP congratulated the voluntary committee on their hard work and said that the Drumshallon Forge restoration project would create a focal point for the community and safeguard an important part of Co Louth’s heritage.  It would have an economic benefit too, creating employment and attracting visitors to the area as it would complement a tourist route from Mellifont and Monasterboice to the Viking settlement in Annagassan.

The forge at Drumshallon was in continuous use for almost 350 years until it fell into decline in the 1960s. We know for sure that Pat Dillon’s (committee chairman) father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great, great  grandfather were all blacksmiths at Drumshallon, and there are legends of an associated forge with Dillon blacksmiths a few hundred metres away at The Brittas, going back 1,000 years to the aftermath of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Louth Leader Partnership is delighted to be able to support such a worthwhile and interesting project.