Kenmare group is grateful for project support

A CHEERY atmosphere prevailed at the start of Friday’s South and West Kerry Municipal District Meeting in Kenmare as Councillor Patrick O’Connor-Scarteen brought a deputation from a local group, Kenmare Marketing and Events Group, to the Brook Lane Hotel.

Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan and Helen McDwyer both spoke during the deputation to thank Kerry County Council for their recent purchase of 14 acres of land at the peninsula for amenity purposes, for which Mr O’Sullivan was most grateful.

“It will be of untold benefit, socially and economically,” he said. “They have now completed a loop that will leave Kenmare on one side, bound by the golf links...down by the pier, around by the peninsula group, and there’s a rightofto bring it back into town the opposite way. It will make an enormous difference.

“I’d like to thank our local reps for their support, especially Councillors Dan McCarthy and Patrick O’Connor-Scarteen, members of our group. I’d also like to thank Martin O’Donoghue for his professionalism and determination for getting the project over the line”.

Helen McDwyer of Kenmare Marketing Events Group was equally grateful, but she explained that plans for the locality do not stop with the recent purchase of the land mentioned by Mr O’Sullivan.

“We’re also working on another project…we were looking at the net factory [Ceann Mara] inside in town, it’s derelict, there’s a massive unit to the back of it. We are hoping, to bring the men’s shed back into town.”

The factory has also been earmarked for other uses, such as serving as a creative hub, and The Kerryman recently reported that KMEG and Kerry County Council would like to use it to develop a new car park and, perhaps, a sensory garden, should the purchase go ahead.

“We’re supportive of that,” said Martin O’Donoghue of Kerry County Council, which hopes to secure the asset with the help of national funding. “The vision is exciting. We have included it in an application under rural grants projects, so a lot of it is dependent on that, but we hope that will be successful. If we can bring resources to the table, I think we’ll be in a position to move forward with that.”

Councillor Connor-Scarteen joined his fellow councillors in praising the KMEG’s work, describing the peninsula project as one of the best ever in Kenmare.