Funding signals potential new chapter for Athy

THE recent announcement of a €4.9 million grant for the redevelopment of the former Christian Brothers Primary School Building in St John’s Lane as a Southeastern Regional Regeneration Centre was greeted with delighted by all of us interested in the Industrial regeneration of our town.

The man who has been pursuing the idea of a retraining centre based in the old school and who made his intentions public over two years ago was local councillor Brian Dooley.

I know from my own time in the parish finance committee that there were great difficulties to be overcome when the Christian Brothers indicated their willingness to sell the old school.

Even though the property was built sometime in the 1960s the title deeds could not be traced, which held up the sale of the property for many years.

The idea of developing the old school as a retraining centre was, I believe, developed by Brian Dooley with the active involvement of Jacqui McNabb, local enterprise officer for the county and the encouragement of Fr Liam Rigney and local auctioneer Elizabeth Fingleton.

It was only last week that in conversation with a local businessman, we both expressed disappointment at the apparent failure of our town to attract any new industry.

The news last week of the grant for the development of a retraining centre is the first good news we have had on the industrial front for quite a long time.

In the public announcement regarding the proposed centre, reference was made to the Circular Economy. 

I had to ask what this meant, to be told by Brian Dooley that “the project rationale was to purchase the disused Christian Brothers School and then provide a location, support and skills for a regenerative business as a tool for developing economic resilience in a highly disadvantaged area in our county.

“If the project is supported, we will be able to teach sustainable practices by training individuals while giving new life to discarded items. 

"By blending environmental practices with training, we will create a position impact fostering a culture of reuse and creativity within the community”.

This, he indicated, will promote sustainable practices by training individuals from basic introduction courses to City and Guilds technician levels and onto full apprenticeships.

The centre when developed in Athy will offer training up to and including apprenticeship level for male and female workers.

It will bring attention to the historic town of Athy and hopefully encourage the development of new industry in our midst.

Athy traffic in recent times seems busier than ever before. I am astonished that despite the outer relief road catering for through Athy traffic, especially heavy goods vehicles, the main streets of Leinster Street and Duke Street have a constant stream of traffic. 

Very little, if any, of that traffic stops in the town, simply I imagine because of the unwelcome message which Kildare County Council parking signs signal to car drivers. 

We should be encouraging those passing through our town to stop for a short while and visit our local shops and the local amenities.

While I am meeting traffic through the town, why have Kildare County Council also determined that HGV vehicles can still be driven through our main shopping streets. It should be possible to require HGV vehicles to use the outer relief road.

It was wonderful to read of yet another award to Athy’s Shackleton Museum. It follows up several other awards since it opened in 2025.

This time the award came from the British Guild of Travel Writers for what they described as the best European Tourism Project and represents an international award of which we can be immensely proud.

Let me conclude by again congratulating Jacqui McNabb, the Local Enterprise Officer and Brian Dooley for their excellent work which has resulted in the award of a substantial grant for the development of Athy’s regeneration, training and education Centre.

Eye on the Past No. 1766