Volunteers are backbone of hub of Monksland community

by David Flynn

Both a celebrative and competitive day took place recently at the Monksland Community Centre, which is representing Roscommon in the Pride of Place competition. The volunteers who have been the backbone of the centre for decades proudly showed the judges the activities and creations that take place at the centre involving community residents of all ages.

Annette Curley, one of the longest serving volunteers, welcomed all visitors to the centre and commented to the gathering about the great turnout.

“It’s a really social gathering here today to celebrate your community, and there’s tea and buns available, so we’ll keep it country and enjoy it all,” said Annette to applause.

Angela Doran is another volunteer whose involvement in the Monksland community goes back thirty-nine years, to 1985!

“Roscommon County Council have a huge involvement here and asked us to go forward for Pride of Place,” said Angela, to the Westmeath Independent on the day. “This building, our football pitches and astro turf are all under this umbrella of Monksland Community. We have it all leased from the council but we are ran completely by volunteers and any money we make is from the renting of the rooms. We make sure the building is well maintained.”

SEE ARTICLE ON THE VARIOUS GROUPS THAT USE THE CENTRE HERE

While Angela has been involved in the community group for 39 years, the community centre is up and running for twenty-two years, since 2002.

“We used to have our first meetings in Shine's Bar, and this place became idle and we were in a little room for a while and we got the council to renovate a bit of it, and we renovated a lot ourselves,” said Angela. “We are a very busy centre, and we could do with eight Sundays in the month, because of the many different religious groups involved here. We have a huge multi-cultural population now from Lithuania, Latvia, Nigeria, Brazil, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, India and Russia, and you name it, we’ve every denomination!”

Angela talked about the many activities in the centre including the darts group operated by Seamie Tynan over the past ten years.

“We have different Monksland active age groups, a women’s group, a crochet group and St. Joseph’s Football Club,” she said. “We have seven directors here – Annette Curley, Angela Coyle, Marguerite Hannon, Tony Flynn, Anna King, Graham Mangan and myself.

Norah Holloway, a long-term visitor to the centre, praised the group running Monksland Community Centre.

“I do needlepoint, crochet and embroidery as part of the Women’s Group and there is also a sewing group here,” she said. “I find Annette, Angela and all the other people here amazing, and it’s wouldn’t be a success without them.”

She commented on Angela Doran spending the previous weekend cleaning the centre.

“Angela doesn’t think about it, she does it because she loves it,” said Norah.

The Pride of Place judges who attended on the day were Tom Dowling, Chairperson of Co-Operation Ireland and former Chief Executive of Mean and Carlow County Councils and Terry O’Niadh, former Chief Executive of North Tipperary County Council.

They had also attended The Quad facility in Roscommon town, to learn about the Foróige Roma Project, which has a presence both in Roscommon town and in Ballaghaderreen. The project serving the needs of young Roma people was also nominated to represent Roscommon at the Pride of Place Awards.

In their summation of the group’s presentation, Tom Dowling hailed the local community for “their beautiful facilities”, adding: “there’s a lot of happiness here".

“People feel good about coming into the centre. Roscommon County Council have brought us to two very different but two fantastic places”, in reference to the judge’s earlier visit to The Quad, before adding: “The support of Roscommon County Council is very important.

“Projects like we’ve seen today are all about collaboration. It’s been a long, long journey for you all to deliver what you’re delivering (here in Monksland). But you’ve done it. When judging this competition, we love to see volunteer leadership and volunteer activity. It’s clear from what we’ve seen today that people believe in what you’re doing.”

The All-Ireland awards are organised by the peacebuilding charity Co-operation Ireland in association with Irish Public Bodies (IPB), a collaboration between local authorities across the island of Ireland.

It aims to recognise and celebrate the vital contributions that communities make to society along with generating awareness, respect and inclusion for every facet of society.