BY EIMEAR O’DWYER
‘THERE'S nowhere that doesn’t need hope and that includes West Cork.’
These are the words of Tallaght man Seán Fox who set up the Bench of Hope project last year with his partner Valerie Fitzpatrick – to spread peace, hope and connection in communities across Ireland.
The first Bench of Hope was installed at Malin Head in Co Donegal last August, and the couple have since been campaigning to put a similar bench at Mizen Head, as there are so many strong links between the most southerly and northerly points on the island.
The couple have the support of local councillors Ross O’Connell and Caroline Cronin but the project has been refused by Cork County Council which says it may promote ‘a proliferation’ of benches around the county.
The couple disagree, saying as this is not a memorial bench, but a bench for everybody in the area, to benefit their mental health and well-being.
‘I think there’s a little bit of a misunderstanding. It is a bench for reflection and for communication and sharing, and the poem is there to help,’ said Valerie. ‘Some people go to church to pray, some people meditate, and this is a way to offer solace.’
‘We believe that Mizen Head is an ideal place to have a bench. There’s already a bench up north that’s been nothing but a success and there hasn’t been a proliferation of benches at Malin Head in the past year,’ Seán added.
The Bench of Hope at Malin Head was installed last August, with a poem of hope inscribed on it. The bench offers people a place to sit and reflect and it aims to enhance people’s mental well-being, Seán explained.
‘The whole idea is to help people find that resource within themselves, to empower themselves and always to know that there is love and there is hope,’ said Valerie. ‘It’s a win-win situation – it’s for the people it’s with the people. It will bring communities together. It will help people to help each other and that’s what the poem is about.’
Valerie, who is a secondary school teacher and guidance counsellor, said the Bench of Hope has offered a resource and a comfort to people who are facing adversity.
‘We experienced nothing but positivity prior to getting the bench into Malin Head and then even afterwards the emails, the conversations Seán and I would have had with people up there. And everything is so, so positive, and we’d love to see that extended to another part of the country,’ she said.
The last response the couple received from Cork County Council about the project was in January of this year.
The couple remain hopeful, however, that the project will continue to move forward in Cork and other locations around Ireland.
‘We still live in hope, we want this to continue and Seán and myself have plans for many other places to have benches of hope,’ Valerie added.
‘At the end of the day the bench is owned by the people of that area, it’s for them. We’re not going to try to get anything out of it. It’s not for us, it’s to give it to them.’
Cork County Council told The Southern Star that they refused the application to install the proposed bench because the granting of such a request could lead to a proliferation of similar requests in unspoilt, scenic areas.
This decision was made by Cork County Council as the owner of the land in question, and not from a decision of the Council as a planning authority.
Seán encourages those who want to support the campaign to contact hm at [email protected] or [email protected].
