€2 Million Investment in Kinsale
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD and Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring have recently announced an award of €2,157,375 to Cork County Council for Kinsale Library under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, which aims to breathe new life into Irelands smaller towns and villages. Permission has been secured for the relocation of Kinsale Library from the Methodist Hall on Market Quay to the Old Mill, Church Square. The project will involve major reconstruction and library fit out. The current library is located in rented premises. The Old Mill has been in Cork County Council’s ownership since the 1980s and has long been ear marked for use as a library. The Ground Floor is slightly less than four times the size of the current building and will accommodate additional mezzanine floors overhead. This will allow for the provision of a modern branch library with a strong cultural, community and educational role particularly in the area of digital literacy while preserving a listed building that is an essential part of the historic fabric of Kinsale town. The project has been designed by Cork County Council’s Architects Department and sets out to reprogram the Old Mill building as the new public library for Kinsale, creating a new nodal point in the urban fabric of the town on an elevated, prominent site, physically and visually linking the two historic churches of St Multose to the south and St John the Baptist to the north. Commenting on the project, Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy noted how this project will be fantastic for the people of Kinsale and its visitors, “In the near future everyone will have access to a wonderful library offering literature, culture, arts and lifelong learning.”
