Fore group only getting started

Late winter, the Pride of Place judges reviewed a set of actions, a decade in the making, that created a looped walk in Fore. They heard a 20-minute presentation from Cllr Frank McDermott, Jane O’Reilly, Una D’Arcy and Patrick D’Arcy detailing work to create a tourism economy in the tiny place that dated back to Frank’s father and his friends forming a meitheal to clean up the Abbey and stop wild goats tearing at the walls.

The complex, patchwork funding and massive administration were detailed, accounting for every cent that had created the off-road path, art sculptures, picnic tables, signage and promotion. All in, it detailed hundreds of thousands of euro and hundreds of hours of voluntary work.

The verdict: ‘This is the start of something exciting.’

“If ever something was a game changer, it was hearing a judge tell us we are at the start of the road, not the end of it, “ said Cllr Frank McDermott, chairperson of Fore Heritage and Amenity Group (FHAG),

“I sat down over tea with Una and said, ‘beginning?’, and she said ‘so it would seem’ and then she laughed and told me 2022 would be great we would get loads sorted.”

Light it up

On Friday last, it was announced that Westmeath County Council’s application to the Town and Village Renewal scheme had been successful and that €157,231 would be awarded to continue works to improve the built infrastructure in Fore (see also, story above right).

The FHAG prepared detailed information on their activity, supplied the data they gather on tourism and community, and worked closely with the Community Section at the county council to prepare the application.

“This also goes back to Pride of Place,” said Cllr McDermott, “The Pride of Place process is a pathway directly into Annette Barr Jordan and Margaret Egan and Ann Marie Nash and the Community Section of Westmeath County Council. These conversations over cups of tea, out in the community, are the best way to do things because everyone has great ideas and everyone has skills and everyone wants to be a part of building up the community they live in.

“That conversation is then being had with the very people that can help you. People like me, the elected rep, and people like Annette Barr Jordan the person with funding and development objectives,” explains Frank, “they are invaluable to us and their application into Town and Village Renewal is going to massively benefit the community and the business in the area.

The project has three main elements; the installation of public lighting along the new footpath which will provide a kilometre of lit pavement extending the use significantly in winter months and to people who would like to walk later, the creation of a community space in the village itself and further works to enhance the heritage stone walls in the village.

“In case anyone is worried, the ducting and sleeves are already in place so there are no worries about damaging our new footpath or having to dig anything else up,” said Frank.

“The community space is one that will be created to allow the existing businesses to have safe outdoor areas which will build on their trade and enhance the overall offering of the whole area, and we will also be using some of this money to create a wildlife and pollinator corridor. Our natural heritage is a key focus for 2022 for FHAG.

“We are now a part of Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and we have spent the last decade focusing on our built heritage, FHAG are now involved in exciting nature projects including building our biodiversity, fostering areas at our springs that will benefit the whole river and lake systems and working to create outdoor classrooms along the looped walk.”

And just how much money has been invested in Fore recently? “Fore was awarded €100k in grant funding in 2020 and €52k funding in 2018 under Town and Village Renewal, both to construct and complete pedestrian link to St Feichin’s looped walk back to the village along the L5637, and in 2021 grant funding of €70k was awarded under Community monuments fund for preservation works to the Goal Wall in the village,” said Frank.

“And we are grateful to Westmeath County Council and to Paul McCool, Melanie McQuade the heritage officer, and the team in community I mentioned before for seeing the potential here and supporting the work being done on the ground by the group. It is a great beginning to 2022.”