Flagship Armada centre is mooted
Sligo should develop a flagship Armada Centre along the lines of the Titanic Experience in Belfast. That’s according to Spanish Armada Ireland’s Eddie O’Gorman, who pressed members of the Sligo - Drumcliffe Municipal District on the need for a Spanish Armada Interpretative Centre, Museum and Conservation unit at Grange.
“Why can’t we aim for something on the scale of Titanic Belfast? The story is there. They’ve had four million visitors since they opened in 2012,” he told members.
O’Gorman said Spanish Armada Ireland (formerly known as Grange Armada Development Association) had already identified a site in Council ownership in Grange but were “not hung up on that.”
In September 2018 the organisation received €100,000 through the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. Any future funding granted by the Government or Fáilte Ireland will require matching funding from the Council.
“This project can be done cheap or properly like the Titanic,” members were told. “We’re at the stage where we need the major push on,” he said, although no exact figure of how much such a development might cost was mentioned.
No councillor asked for any cost estimate either. O’Gorman said there was twenty years work left on the Armada site and urged the Council to be the “driver in seeking capital funding.”
The fact that the cannon recovered in 2015 by the National Museum’s Underwater Archaeology Unit from Streedagh were almost ready for display was one of the reasons Sligo needed a Conservation Unit to house them, members heard.
O’Gorman said both Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan (a regular visitor to Sligo) had both supported the idea of an Armada Centre in Sligo.
Cllr Marie Casserly said Sligo had the only site in the world with three Spanish Armada shipwrecks and an Armada Centre could “become the jewel in the crown of
Sligo tourism and internationally.” “Galway are keeping their eye on it and willing to take any artefacts we can’t show,” she said. She also said Fáilte Ireland were looking at the possibility of developing a Spanish Armada trail along the north western coastline, linking to the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland. “Now we need to move it to the next level and a feasibility study would do that,” she told the meeting.
“This can be our Titanic,” said Cllr Thomas Healy. “It’s important we get a plan, it’s to the benefit of everyone,” he said. “This presentation should go to Leitrim and other Councils because this will benefit the whole North West. You’ve shone a light where there needed a light shone. We’re only going to get one shot at this so let’s do it right,” he said.
Cllr Thomas Walsh asked for a timeline on the Feasibility Study that will be done next and was told that it is “a priority for next year” as the UAU was returning to do another survey of the shipwreck sites in the spring.
Cllr Donal Gilroy asked about the Memorandum of Understanding between Ireland and Spain and was told that it had been “stalled on the Irish side.”
“The Spanish are very keen to agree on how their heritage and artefacts are treated. We have very little influence on that. The new Spanish Ambassador is taking up the cudgel, it’s on his priority list,” said O’Gorman.
“There are only five of the twenty-six locations where an actual ship has been found - three are in Sligo. That puts us way ahead of everyone else,” he said. “We have to hold our position because we will be challenged,” he stressed.
Cllr Gilroy urged the Council to look at European funding sources because of the strong European link to the Armada story in Ireland. “In North Sligo we have Lissadell House, Yeats’ grave and the Spanish Armada Centre would be the third leg of the milking stool that’s needed,” he said.
Council Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes said he liked the ambition of the project. “This project has it all - very serious potential on a national and international level. The Feasibility Study will give us a road map as to where we need to go next. From our point of view, you’re pushing an open door,” he told the meeting.
Cathaoirleach of the Sligo - Drumcliffe Municipal District Cllr Tom Fox encouraged Spanish Armada Ireland to “keep up the momentum.”