The National Millennium Committee has announced funding of more than £1.5 million for a number of projects in Cork city over the coming year, but nothing has been granted to the city's most historic site - St Fin Barre's Cathedral, where the saint founded a monastic settlement in 606 AD.
At present, a £5 million restoration project is underway at the cathedral, and Church of Ireland leaders in Cork have decided that an interpretative centre to tell the story of Cork will be built in the grounds of the famous site. They hope it will be a lasting monument to the great tradition associated with St Fin Barre's.
However, at a news conference in Cork yesterday, the chairman of the National Millennium Committee, Mr Seamus Brennan, Minister of State to the Taoiseach, made no mention of St Fin Barre's.
Ms Pamela Kelleher, who is the information officer for the restoration project at St Fin Barre's, said yesterday she was stunned no money was forthcoming for the cathedral.
The news conference was equally stunned when she tackled the Minister, outlining her grave disappointment that one of the foremost Christian sites in Ireland had not received Government funding.
The millennium, she told the audience, was intended as a symbol of Christianity and there could be no greater one than the marvellous cathedral of St Fin Barre's and the restoration it was seeking to achieve.
She told Mr Brennan she had gone to the Taoiseach's Office seeking £2 million to help in the St Fin Barre's project and had been convinced the Government was well disposed towards such a worthwhile effort. When she had made her pitch Mr Brennan said he would look at the matter again. Ms Kelleher said: "I was so shocked to hear that no money was coming our way for the St Fin Barre's project that I asked Mr Brennan if it had been an omission on his part. I could hardly believe it."
The SHARE schools project in Cork, which has been developing housing for the elderly for some decades, is to get £750,000 of the £1.5 million-plus.
Cork Corporation will receive £500,000 for a new millennium foot bridge spanning the river Lee between Cornmarket Street and Pope's Quay, costing £850,000.
The corporation will also get £300,000 for the permanent illumination of a number of prominent roads and pedestrian bridges in the city. As well, the Cork Opera House will receive funding from the committee, but so far, no decision on the extent of the grant has been announced.