New building at Letterkenny Community Centre will be named after Jim Lynch

The new €1.4m building project at Letterkenny Community Centre will be named after the late Jim Lynch.

The first sod was turned by Cllr Kevin Bradley, Mayor of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District, to mark the official beginning of construction by McHugh Construction at the new community building, which was designed by architect, Gerard Gallagher.

Liam O’Donnell, manager of the centre, believes it is only fitting to name the facility after a man who he described as a “driving force.”

“If you go back to the people who were here before, Jim Lynch was the pioneer of Letterkenny Community Centre and all the values he preached, we tried to follow them,” Mr O’Donnell said. 

“He was the driving force behind us. He was a safe pair of hands who would steer you in the right decision. The board unanimously backed to name this after him. The Community Centre was built by the people for the people. That was always his statement. ”

“There were a lot of bumps on the road. We had a major project and we scaled it back to what we could afford. It’s a lot of money and we’re very thankful. We’re going ahead with it. This project is a necessity. We had a dilemma in doing the pitch and it has proved a huge success. It’s marvellous we’re operating at the level we’re operating at.

“We have to thank the people before us, who put this centre here. It’s a testament to them and to their vision. We have a duty of care to keep it going to build it for the next generation. 

“Monica Grier, from the centre here, does the admin. To have someone like that within your workforce, you couldn’t put a value on it.”

Lee Downey, chair of the Board of Management at the Community Centre, said the ethos community would remain the same.

“It’s been such a long journey,” he said. “It’s fantastic to see a community centre here, the community spirit brings people together. It brings everyone together. The community spirit is still alive and well in Letterkenny. It’s people we embrace here. We have an international community here and we support everyone who comes to this town. We have Donegal County Council, DLDC and all the others, we want to thank you all. The support has taken us to this point.”  

The site will have two new state-of-the-art dressing rooms and will be built beside the existing astroturf (4G) playing pitch which has seen an almost constant flow of people since its completion in 2019. 

Funding for the project was granted by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, who has approved a grant of €300,000 from the Community Centre Investment Fund and a further €100,000 from the Dormant Accounts Fund, with Donegal County Council providing a grant of €200,000.

The balance must be met by the Community Centre, and several fundraising initiatives are in the pipeline to total the 1.4 million cost. 

The community building will be suitable for public events, meetings, and functions and will be able to host events for up to 70 people. It will also be available for birthday parties. There are also plans to erect a stand in the future.

Mayor Bradley also paid tribute to the late Jim Lynch, who passed away in September 2022, served on the Letterkenny Community Centre Committee, the International Folk Festival and the Letterkenny Reunion committees.

“It is a proud day for the Lynch family to see the project going through and I’m proud to be here too,”  Mayor Bradley said. “He was a great man, a great friend of the town. It’s great to see this facility here with what’s going on. It’s absolutely brilliant.”

The late Jim Lynch also served as Chair of the Letterkenny Tidy Towns Committee and was the editor of the hugely popular Letterkenny Christmas Annual since 1982 and also served on the Letterkenny Community Centre Committee, the International Folk Festival and the Letterkenny Reunion committees.

More recently he was Heritage Officer with the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Project and affectionately referred to as ‘The Father of the Cathedral Quarter’.