John Count McCormack statue for Civic Centre

A lifesize bronze statue of John Count McCormack will be the central piece in an exhibition dedicated to the tenor in Athlone Civic Centre, it emerged this week. After offers of memorabilia from the John Count McCormack Society in Dublin and from America, the council has decided to relocate the exhibition dedicated to Athlone's most famous son to the civic centre as the space allocated in the castle was deemed too small. The customer service section in the civic centre will be moved to facilitate the exhibition. The castle exhibition areas will now be used solely to display exhibitions dedicated to Athlone's military history and to the personalities involved in the Siege of Athlone. Speaking about the proposed John Count McCormack exhibition, Town Clerk John Walsh told councillors at Monday's meeting: "The McCormack exhibition will include a small theatre with an AV of his life, an audio area where visitors can listen to his music and an exhibition area where all the memorabilia, including our own, will be on display. In addition it is proposed to place a life size figure in bronze of John Count McCormack to the front of the civic centre and to relocate customer care elsewhere within the building. The space in the castle vacated by the McCormack exhibition will be used for a feature on the life and times of a number of the major personalities of the Siege of Athlone. Funding for the new McCormack exhibition will be sought from Fáilte Ireland." Mr Walsh also told the councillors that work was underway on the art gallery, with a completion date of December 14 expected, which would coincide with the completion of the castle revamp, allowing for a soft opening for the councillors before Christmas. He said the castle would remain closed for 2011 and it had been over ambitious to expect the work to be completed in a single year. He confirmed that work on the castle revamp was to begin at the end of June. Fine Gael's Cllr Mark Cooney said he had asked for the item to be put on the agenda and thanked the council for the detailed report. He said he believed moving the John McCormack exhibition was the right thing to do and thanked those who had donated memorabilia for the exhibition. He also asked for an update at the June meeting as the work on the castle was expected to start then. Cllr Gabrielle McFadden (FG) said the John Count McCormack exhibition was important and asked if the civic centre could be open at weekends for people to view the exhibition. Mr Walsh said it could be opened and said the castle, the gallery and the exhibition could all be on the one ticket. Cllr Aengus O'Rourke (FF) asked if the tourist office would remain in the civic centre this year and also asked if a seven-month construction period for the castle revamp was too ambitious. Mr Walsh said the design team was happy that it could be done in that period. He said some of the contracts could be done simultaneously and said some of them could be done off site. In relation to the tourist office, Mr Walsh said the council was meeting Fáilte Ireland next Monday and hoped to have a more definite idea of what was happening then. Mayor Sheila Buckley Byrne said it was her understanding that its location at the civic centre hadn't been a success and asked if footfall had been down. Mr Walsh said it hadn't been used as much as it had been in the castle. Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran said the revamp, the art gallery and the exhibition would be good for the town. "I think the statute of John McCormack is brilliant. I was in the national museum in the summer in the Count John McCormack Hall where we were criticised for not honouring him," he said. "I think it's great that it's here, so close to where he's from." He asked if the money that had been allocated for the exhibition for the castle was available for the exhibition's new location. Mr Walsh said all of the exhibitions in the castle were about the castle and its military roots and said the money had been given for those specific spaces and the council would have to look for funds from Fáilte Ireland for the John McCormack exhibtion. Mayor Sheila Buckley Byrne said that at her very first meeting she had pointed out that it was historically wrong to have the John McCormack exhibition in the castle and she had said it would be more appropriate in the Fr Mathew Hall. However, she welcomed the move, saying the civic centre was a better location for it than the castle. She said she was told then that it wasn't incompatible to put it in the castle and now two years later it was being moved just like that. Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran said her comments were unfair and said she couldn't come in and act like the 'big one', saying the Town Clerk pointed out that two years ago the council didn't have the memorabilia that was now on offer. "You can't criticise us for decisions we made before you were here," he said.