Making it official! Burke to open new civil defence headquarters

For several years, Westmeath Civil Defence was without a permanent home.

During the pandemic, however, that changed, and the organisation secured premises at Lough Sheever Park.

This week, the official opening of that new premises is to take place, with Minister of State Peter Burke TD set to perform the opening in the presence of council cathaoirleach, Liam McDaniel.

Civil Defence chief Brian Gillen says it was a relief to the organisation when it made the move to Lough Sheever Park, as it provides them with room for training, meetings, and with a location for storing equipment and supplies and its communications technology.

"We were based in the county buildings and then we moved to the O'Brien's complex on the Lynn Road. Then we moved from there to prefabricated cabins at Cullion, and they started to disintegrate so we were back in the county buildings whenever we were training at night, but that was disjointed because we weren't together and we were in different buildings."

He says it was "brilliant" for the organisation when it finally got to make the move to its new Lough Sheever base, but that it took some time before it was able to reap full benefit from the move.

"The building was bought just prior to the pandemic, and then there was a bit of work needed but that was held up with the pandemic; one thing that I can remember is we were waiting six months for a window because all places were closed."

Civil Defence has 45 active members locally.