Skip to content
Welcome to the Fr. McGrath Centre
facebook
twitter
linkedin
flickr
Fr McGrath Centre Kilkenny
Call Support 056 775 1988
Email Support info@frmcgrathcentre.ie
Location St. Joseph's Rd, Kilkenny.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Three Year Area Action Plan
    • Board of Directors
    • Vacancies
    • Downloads
    • In Memoriam
  • Services
    • The Learning Tree
    • Children & Youth Services
    • Family & Community Services
    • Older Persons Support
    • Education & Employment Services
    • Multimedia Services
  • Volunteer
  • News
  • Outreach
    • St. Canice’s Neighbourhood Hall
    • Associated Organisations and Groups
    • Kilkenny Job Club
  • Facilities
  • Contact

Bishop and Mayor to Officially Launch New Neighbourhood Centre in Kilkenny

Home > Local History > Bishop and Mayor to Officially Launch New Neighbourhood Centre in Kilkenny

Bishop and Mayor to Officially Launch New Neighbourhood Centre in Kilkenny

March 17, 2010 | By
0

This Sunday Bishop of Ossory, Seamus Freeman, will give his blessings to a community venture trying to revive the fortunes of the last parish hall left in the City.

Following 11.30am Sunday mass, St. Canice’s Parish Priest Fr. Jim Murphy and Bishop Freeman will be joined by City Mayor, Martin Brett to officially open St. Canice’s Parish Hall Neighbourhood Centre at a special ceremony marking more than fifty years of service to Kilkenny families from the old parish building on the Butts Green.

A community partnership between the parish hall committee, The Fr. McGrath Family Centre and local church and charity groups will launch a three year development plan that aims to revitalise what was once one of the most active community buildings in Kilkenny City.

Known for decades as the Boys Club, and still a snooker hall with some of the finest tables in the country, the community hope to renovate and upgrade the building to allow them to offer its facilities to a much wider user group in Kilkenny City. They also hope it will play an important role in offering employment training services to the long term unemployed and help create new jobs for Kilkenny people.

Chairperson of the Fr. McGrath Centre, Pat Brennan, thanked parish priest, Fr. Jim Murphy and Bishop Freemen for giving their community partnership the opportunity to redevelop the old building as a new Neighbourhood Centre. He said:

‘We are confident that with support from people and businesses in Kilkenny and our parish we can make this building a very important asset for Kilkenny families once more.’

Former plans to sell the building have been put on hold to give the local effort and opportunity to upgrade the facility and develop neighbourhood services for families in the parish and the city. Last year the Fr. McGrath Centre successfully sought a grant under the Community Service Programme to employ maintenance workers for the building.

Three Year Development Plan:

In the first year of their three year plan the local committee have already had considerable success in attracting more users to the old hall.

Now table tennis clubs, men’s action groups, youth, art projects and employment training services have joined the local Bingo, one of the longest running in the country, as part of the regular services offered alongside snooker to people in the City.

The steering committee behind the project hope to raise and invest more than €100,000 over the life of their development plan to upgrade the facility and open it up to more social and local community support groups.

Young people from the Fr. McGrath Centre will play host to the many visitors expected to view the building at the Blessing and opening ceremony after 11.30 mass in St. Canice’s church this Sunday morning.

The old hall was first established by the local church in the late 1940’s as a social club for boys and men but the building has served Kilkenny families for a much longer period in its original use as the local primary school from circa 1890 until after the last world war.

The Ceremony is planned for 12.15pm and the building is open to all to visit throughout the day.

Tags: Bishop Freeman, jobs, mayor Martin Brett, Neighbourhood Centre, Three Year Development Plan

Fr. McGrath Family Resource Centre

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Board of Directors
  • Services
  • Volunteer
  • Courses
  • News
  • Outreach
  • Facilities
  • Contact
  • Vacancies
  • Downloads

Site Map

  • Donation Page
  • Children & Youth Services
  • Family & Community Services
  • The Learning Tree
  • Education & Employment Services
  • Older Persons Support
  • St. Canice’s Neighbourhood Hall
  • Multimedia Services
  • Kilkenny Job Club
  • St. Canice’s Community Employment Training
  • Data Protection and Privacy
  • Terms and Conditions

Search Our Website

Connect With Us on Social Media

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flickr

_____________________________________

FMC logo
Fr. McGrath Centre
St. Joseph's Rd, Kilkenny.
056 775 1988
info@frmcgrathcentre.ie

 

Charity No: 15159

Login

This website uses cookies for basic functionality and not for personal data collection. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT