Tributes were paid to an extraordinary community effort in south Galway yesterday when President Mary McAleese opened a rebuilt centre for people with learning disabilities.
Just over three years ago, the original Orchard Centre, run by the Brothers of Charity in Gort, was destroyed in a fire. Since then the community has worked relentlessly to replace it, according to Brothers of Charity director of services at Woodlands, Renmore, Patrick McGinley.
Devastated at the loss of the premises, the centre's clients were consulted and their ideas forwarded to a planning and design team. The Phoenix group was then formed to set about building a new centre at "the best possible cost".
Local builder Michael O'Grady co-ordinated a concerted effort to draw on people's good will - the result being a building worth €2.4 million but costing about half of that. His team obtained discounts, special prices, donation of building materials and commitments to voluntary work, while Gort resident Mossy Clabby tackled the fundraising.
This included a donation of €100,000 from JP and Noreen McManus and a golf event run by Patrick Maher, brother of one of the centre's clients, in Long Island, New York.
The new centre is "bigger and better than anything there before", Mrs McAleese said at yesterday's event, when she described it as the finest building of its type in the State.
The result represents a "major achievement by the local community and the Brothers of Charity services", Mr McGinley said.
The story behind the new centre's reconstruction is "truly unique", he noted.
