Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum among the ‘Good Causes’ to benefit from lottery funding
Applications are open for the 2025 National Lottery’s Good Causes Awards
THE Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum received national recognition as a finalist in the National Lottery’s Good Causes Awards, highlighting its role in preserving Ireland’s aviation and maritime heritage. As applications open for the 2025 awards, they are encouraging other organisations and community projects to apply for the awards.
Despite not winning the overall award for the heritage category, Barry O’Kelly, operations manager at the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, said they were delighted with the publicity from the awards along with the €1,000 funding boost they received.
The funding went towards preserving sections of the museum's collection and acquiring archival art. “We were able to use all that funding to help preserve the collection and enhance it.. which is well worthwhile,” explained Barry. Using the €1,000 boost, they purchased archival equipment.
The operations manager at the museum is appealing to other organisations to apply for the awards. “Every bit of funding goes towards running costs and things like that. The rate of inflation and cost of running companies and charities has just snowballed and doubled in the last number of years, so any help at all is greatly appreciated.”
Applicants can win up to €25,000 for the Good Cause of the Year and €10,000 for a category winner, in one of seven categories.