Upper Springfield bid to expand Irish language hub
AN Irish language youth organisation is carrying out a feasibility study in a bid to develop a new multi-purpose community, family and heritage hub. Glór na Móna has asked the local community for its views in a bid to develop waste ground, right, beside its premises in the Whiterock area. The land beside Gaelionad Mhic Goill is owned by Belfast City Council but is earmarked for further development. Opened in June 2016, Gaelionad Mhic Goill was built with funding in excess of £400,000 secured from the Irish Language Investment Fund, Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities. However, Glór na Móna Director Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh said the building was “immediately too small”. With upwards of 150 young people on its books and “significant growth in project delivery” Glór na Móna hopes to create a new hub to help facilitate the exponential growth of the Irish language community. “Whilst our current facilities are fantastic, the scale of our growth has created a level of demand that the existing building cannot meet, we have effectively outgrown those facilities,” Feargal explained. “We are now in the process of exploring the potential expansion and development of a new facility that can compliment and enhance what is in place, as such we have recently secured resources through the Department for Communities to appoint S3 Solutions as part of a design team to carry out a Feasibility Study to assess the potential development of a new community facility adjacent to our existing facilities on the Whiterock Road.” Feargal said the vision for the site is a “vibrant multipurpose Irish medium hub with families and young people at the heart of it”. “The purpose of the feasibility study is to identify local needs, explore any gaps in existing provision and assess the viability of a number of potential development options for the site which is currently owned by Belfast City Council who are committed to making the site available for community use. “This process will then establish a preferred option for development that could be taken forward by Glór na Móna for the site based on the findings.” To share your views on the development of the land, take 10 minutes and fill out the survey at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DQJLVDD
