Irish Language Shopfronts Fund

 

Irish language signs were once a common sight on shopfronts in our towns and villages, but they are an increasingly rare sight, with many a reminder of a shop long since closed. Some emerge during renovation and other works to existing shops – a reminder of a past life for a building. A new fund seeks to bring these old, often faded signs back to their former glories.

Following his recent announcement of €3m for 85 built heritage projects across the country under this year’s Historic Structure Fund (HSF), Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, TD, has invited new applications to the scheme under the Irishlanguage shopfront stream.

In conjunction with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media a fund of €100,000 has been made available for eligible projects under this stream.

Each Local Authority is invited to submit, by 8 June (applications from the public must be submitted to Cork County Council by no later than midnight on Sunday 6th June 2021), one application for eligible essential repairs and small capital works for the refurbishment and conservation of an historic Irish-language shop facade, windows, signage and other associated details to safeguard them and keep them in use. Grants of between €15,000 and €50,000 and covering up to 80% of eligible costs will be awarded under this stream and to qualify, structures must be included, or eligible for inclusion, in the Record of Protected

Structures of the relevant local authority.

Commenting on the reopening of applications to this stream, Minister Noonan said: “The

conservation of historic shopfronts is a cause close to my heart and, of the 85 awards I announced recently under this year’s HSF, I was delighted that seven of these were to shopfronts in the English language. Today’s reopening of applications to Irish language shopfronts will, I hope, encourage projects which preserve both our built and linguistic heritage in Gaeltacht regions and beyond.”

 

Applications should be made using the scheme’s application form and submitted to County Architectural Conservation Officer Mona Hallinan (mona.hallinan@corkcoco.ie) by midnight on June 6th 2021. The application form is available by clicking here nó faigh é as gaeilge anseo.