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15 Apr 2026
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15 Apr 2026
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The Royal Shannon Hotel in Banagher and (inset) Cllr Audrey Hennessy Kennedy. Photo: Google Maps.
Parts of a hotel which has become an “eyesore” are set to be demolished as part of the regeneration of an Offaly village.
Plans for the regeneration of Banagher were outlined at the April meeting of the Birr Municipal District.
Olwen Cummins, Town Regeneration Officer at Offaly County Council, gave details of projects focused on the Marina area of the village.
Ms Cummins said: “This is moving along. We’re looking at developing a number of opportunity sites around the Marina.
“We’re awaiting suitable calls for appointment from the design team to develop any of the Marina masterplan proposals that were done previously.
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“What we are working on currently is the Royal Shannon Hotel. The conservation masterplan is complete and it gave us the phased way to develop it.”
She went on to outline the works that are proposed for the hotel and the next steps in developing the project.
“We’re working now and we’re preparing the tender for enabling works to design the enabling works.
“That will probably be to demolish a lot of the bad structure at the back, keep the front preservation pieces and we need to design all of that in order to go to tender, so we’re going to use the money to do that.”
Ms Cummins continued by saying that the project “should be progressing well this year”.
She said that the council has also completed a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the barracks on the other side of the road.
She added a “conservation masterplan” is currently being undertaken there before the building progresses to becoming a capital project.
Fianna Fáil councillor Audrey Hennessey Kennedy welcomed the news surrounding the Royal Shannon Hotel.
Cllr Hennessy Kennedy said: “It’s exciting to see the work that will be done in Banagher. I suppose developments at the Marina need to be started.
“Definitely the Shannon Hotel is an eyesore there at the times and it will be great to see work starting on that.”
Offaly County Council purchased the building at a cost of €181,530 in January 2023.
The council previously stated that it could be 2030 before the regeneration of the Marina area is complete.
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