A year of progress across all fronts in Abbeyfeale...

ABBEYFELE Community Council (ACC) has achieved a great deal in a relatively short timeframe. Founded just over two years ago, it continues to lobby and work hard to retain essential services - economic and social - for Abbeyfeale.

This year’s efforts are no exception. Several important local groups share in a €30,000 fund from the Community Enhancement Programme (CEP). This funding will be put towards various projects throughout the wider Abbeyfeale Community.

The ever changing nature of how people work, and where they work, is also being considered in Abbeyfeale by the seeting up of an e-hub. Abbeyfeale e-hub received €200,000 from The Government’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme. The old Bank Building on Main Street is being identified as a suitable match for the amount of funding that was possible to apply for. Abbeyfeale and the wider community, including the surrounding townlands and villages in all 3 counties of Limerick, Kerry and Cork, will soon benefit from access to a locally-based broadband-enabled professional office and hot-desk environment.

All this is aimed at kick-starting a new way in which locally based professionals and company staff can spend more time closer to home and encourage professionals and high-end internet users to call Abbeyfeale their base. This also opens up opportunities to attract passing professionals who currently have to wait until they arrive in other towns in order to access such an e-hub.

The Great Southern Greenway will see further funding for on-going enhancements to the existing Greenway line, along with potential extension of Greenway into North Kerry towards Listowel and beyond. This is a much needed boost for the West Limerick and North Kerry areas. It will result in extra numbers of cyclists and walkers stopping off in Abbeyfeale throughout the summer.

The Abbeyfeale Sign Language Group started out as a pilot project over a year ago with Mary and Maria Barret offering classes to the general public. The idea was an instead hit with over 20 people signing up for the initial beginners course of which most completed and were presented with official certificates.

This year has seen an even bigger interest with certified students going on to the next level, while two other classes of 20 each have signed up for this year’s beginners certification level. With ongoing support from Abbeyfeale Community Council and the locally based Limerick & Clare ETB Campus, this has put Abbeyfeale on the map as a centre of excellence for sign language and is one of the largest sign language chools in the country. With an ever-increasing waiting list, this is a success story with a very bright future.

Lastly, Abbeyfeale Community Council would like to remind people that they are always looking for active members from a broad section of the community to join. This brings the added opportunity for people to get involved in any of ACC’s successful sub-committees.

Amy Lane, Pauline O Connor, Rosin Curtin, Kathleen Leahy and Adam Driver.

Abbeyfeale Councillors Francis Foley, Liam Galvin and Seamus Browne at the launch of the outdoor gym in the picturesque Town Park.