The successful story of how the Cathedral Quarter project in helping to tackle dereliction in Letterkenny was told at the Drogheda Festival of Ideas held over the weekend.
Organised by Development Perspectives and Upstate Theatre Project, the festival focused on dereliction in Drogheda.
In the Festival’s opening event ‘Revitalising Drogheda: Lessons from Cork and Donegal’ held in the Barbican Centre, Cathedral Quarter Secretary Donnan Harvey outlined how the Community Group, working in tandem with the local authority, Donegal County Council has helped to transform the previously run down Church Lane into the vibrant centre it now is.
Sharing the stage with Donnan was Jude Sherry from the Anois Agency, who along with Frank O’Connor began the #DerelictIreland campaign on Twitter and has helped the bring the issue of Dereliction to the national conscience.
Over the weekend, there were other events including a Speculative Future Workshop into how Drogheda can be reimagined and a display from Master Students from the University College Dublin School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy examining how historical derelict buildings can be reused in the future. At their awards night, the Drogheda Dereliction and Vacancy Group gave out prizes for the most improved building and that with the most potential.
The closing event of the festival was ‘Pretty Vacant Reprise – Walk + Talk’ – a guided tour of vacancy and dereliction in Drogheda whilst hearing from a range of contributors and experts. Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Secretary Donnan Harvey was the last speaker on the tour, telling the crowd that their actions can help to bring about change.
Harvey said the actions of the Cathedral Quarter committee along with other groups like the Tidy Towns and Letterkenny Youthreach were pivotal in getting the local authority involved.
The Historical Towns Initiative that saw the buildings become structurally sound and aesthetic won Donegal County Council the Irish Planning Institute Highly Recommended Award in 2020.
Following on that, the Government was awarded the local authority €10.4 million to develop the Greater Cathedral Quarter under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund which will include the building of an Artisan Hub and creation of a park.
“This is all possible when community and local authority work together but they are being stifled by the broken connection between the local and National Government and Statutory agencies,” said Harvey.
