COMMUNITY NOTES: BALLYHAUNIS - WESTERN PEOPLE (FEBRUARY 3 EDITION)
Works to refurbish the old courthouse in Ballyhaunis will see a new roof on the building.
Works will also include “drying out the interior of damp and a rewiring of the building,” explained Orla Kennelly, architect at Mayo County Council.
The works will be paid for by a €150,000 refurbishment funded by the government’s Community Recognition Fund. Ms Kennelly told this column that further development phases at the building “will require securing further funding”.
Mayo County Council is hoping the works will be completed by the end of the year, said Ms Kennelly.
“We have engaged an additional design team who are progressing detailed drawings and conservation elements to provide more information to a contractor and to ensure we are spending the money in the best way possible. As this is a conservation project, these works cannot be standardised.
“These works are phase one of the Courthouse building and once complete will not constitute a finished building project. The money secured was always intended to cover phase one only.”
Opened in 1874, the limestone-faced Ballyhaunis courthouse closed in 2013 as part of a package of government cutbacks. Ownership of the building was later transferred from the Office of Public Works to Mayo County Council which will now lease the building to the local Rural Irish Artists group.
The building had earlier been offered to the local boxing club in 2021 but costly adaption works to bring it in line with fire and building safety made the move prohibitively expensive. The council’s Claremorris Municipal District office told this column at the time that “substantial funds would have to be made available before any permanent use similar to the boxing club can be carried out on a permanent basis”.
