Community hub gets go-ahead on historic site in Mayo town
An artist's impression of how the restored Convent building will look. Pic: Courtesy of Ballina Convent Revival.
Mayo Co Council has granted planning permission for the former Convent of Mercy in Ballina to be transformed into a community hub.
Ballina Convent Regeneration CLG have restored the building, which had fallen into near ruin, after being gifted it by the Sisters of Mercy in 2024. The group can now progress with plans for a major refurbishment that will see the former convent become a community hub.
The proposed plan for the McDermott Street site will see the change of use of the convent’s ground floor to become community facilities and a two-bedroom apartment while the existing chapel will continue to be used for religious purposes. Community facilities include areas for counselling and therapy functions, meeting rooms, training rooms, music and art facilities, sanitary facilities and a community courtyard.
The proposed apartment will be used by residents associated with the functioning of the community facilities. Various conservation-related works will be carried out related to the historic nature of the building's interior and exterior.
The plan includes a new steel shed for carpentry workshops, the change of use of two unused school buildings previously connected with St Mary’s Secondary School and St Anne’s School respectively. The existing gatehouse is to be reinstated as a residential building which includes refurbishment works and a two-bedroomed extension.
Additional works include new steel palisade fencing and cast-iron heritage type fencing at parts of site, new car parking layouts, a new fuel tank, directional signposting and all other associated site works.
First opened the convent in 1867, the convent closed in 2008 and went through an almost disastrous decline in the intervening years with experts having predicted the collapse of the building’s roof without intervention.
The convent project has no connection to the nearby former St Mary’s Secondary School, which is privately owned and is currently subject to a separate planning application for 38 apartments. The application is on hold pending the submission of further information by the applicant CH Care Services Ltd.
