MEMBERSHIP at Kinsale’s brand new €4.8m library located at the Old Mill building in Church Square has risen by 2,800 since the state-of-the-art cultural space opened earlier this summer.
Speaking at the official opening last week, Minister Heather Humphreys, whose department funded €2.17m for the project, said it will transform the visitor experience and bring new vibrancy to Kinsale.
‘What we have here is a major regeneration project which has seen the transformation of this old historic mill building, which dates back to the 1800s. This project goes to the heart of the Rural Regeneration Fund in taking back old buildings and re-purposing them for 21st century use,’ said Minister Humphreys.
The three-storey library, 10 times larger than the previous premises, boasts a ground floor entrance space and a gallery exhibition area, a mezzanine area, a children’s area, an adult and study area, as well as a digital facility suite. Around 2,800 members have newly joined or rejoined since the new library opened. Cork County librarian Emer O’Brien said they had been looking forward to the formal opening day since August.
‘Even though we have been opened a number of months now, it has given us a chance to show you what it has become and it’s a wonderful library,’ she said.
Kinsale Library also ran a competition in May to get schoolchildren to design a new library card and three lucky winners were selected to have their designs on the membership cards.
Nine-year-old Luke Moloney, a pupil of Scoil Naomh Eltin and from the Old Head, was one of three winners. He attended the opening with his dad Barry Moloney, who incidentally has a book in the new library and is well known for his walking tours around Kinsale. The two other winners of the competition were Tara O’Farrell and Giorgia Cipollone.
