The new Moore Community Council elected this year.

Moore celebration to mark reopening of local hall after €300k revamp

Culture Night in Moore was marked in fine style with a community celebration to mark the reopening of Moore Hall, following a €301,000 refurbishment and facelift.

The project, spearheaded by Moore Community Council, has seen a full upgrade of the building, which first opened in 1951, and the provision of a remote working hub and training facility in the South Roscommon hall to support people from the area working remotely, or accessing training and education courses. The move was made possible by the arrival of fibre broadband via the National Broadband Scheme and boosters are provided throughout the facility.

Work started on the full upgrade of building at the end of 2019, and it was completed in stages, incorporating new meeting rooms, a remote working hub, a complete rewire, installation of energy efficient lighting, upgrades to plumbing, new ceilings, accessible ramps and bathrooms and new sprung floors.

While there were delays due to Covid, and a shortage of materials later on, it was finally completed earlier this year, thanks to a huge amount of funding partners, some €207,000 came from grants alone, the largest from Leader totalling over €66,000 and another €55,000 from the Just Transition Fund. A further €36,000 was raised by the local community and €5,000 came from the Parish Finance Committee.

Over 300 people turned out for the reopening, with the guest of honour Archbishop Francis Duffy unveiling a special plaque for the occasion, alongside Chairperson of Moore Community Council Willie Naughton, who also acted as MC on the night.

Mr Naughton had a special word of thanks for Carmel Scott and Valerie Duffy, who took on the task of applying for all of the grants, and without their “amazing work” the project would not have been completed.

Two rooms have been added through the re-adaptation of space within the old hall to create a new working hub and training facility, and Willie said it's hoped both of these facilities will enable locals to work remotely, study, make podcasts and participate in a variety of courses, like the computer courses put on by the GRETB for farmers, or the more recent cookery, upcycling and mosaic courses.

Part of a vibrant locality with a great voluntary spirit, Willie Naughton hopes the refurbished hall will be a centre for all in the future, a hub for education and a way of bringing the community together in a variety of groups and activities, from Scouts to the ICA, to yoga classes, sport, concerts, dancing and Music Generation music classes. A multi-purpose meeting room is also fully equipped for multi-media presentations and functions.

All present on September 23 were “mega impressed” with the improvements, added Willie, thanking his own committee for their hard work and dedication, all of the funders of the project and Ollie Kenny of PD Contractors, the main contractors who completed the revamp.

He had big praise too for Archbishop Francis Duffy, who blessed the building, speakers Anne Mannion from GRETB, Cllr John Naughten, Tomás Beades and Denise McDonnell from Roscommon Leader Partnership.