Major plan to rebuild gutted Louth church

NOVEMBER 2003

A major fund-raising effort faces Louth parish in its plans to rebuild the Church of the Immaculate Conception after it is gutted by fire earlier this year.

Parishioners hear at a public meeting that at least €1 million will have to be raised if the church is to be rebuilt to its former glory.

Four plans for the restoration of the 111-year-old building are presented by the Belfast firm of Donnelly and O’Neill.

Two of the plans would see the church restored to the condition it had been in before the fire, while two others allow for the modernisation of the interior.

The cost of the work is estimated to be between €3.5m and €3.7m, depending on which option is selected.

It emerges that €2.6m is paid out by the insurance company. Already, €155,000 is spent complying with requests by the Health and Safety Authority to make the building safe.

Local councillor Jim Lennon, PRO of the restoration committee, says that once a plan is selected, planning permission will be sought and then they will go to tender.

‘Hopefully, we will be able to start work in March or April of next year and that it will be completed in twelve or eighteen months,’ he says.

‘We haven’t really started fundraising in earnest, but once we decide on a plan, we will be looking at different ways to raise money.’

So far, €125,000 is raised and a number of local people come up with their own fundraising ideas.

Another public meeting is planned for 25 November next.