PLANS are in place to create a €700,000 performance theatre catering for 400 people at Kinsale Community School that will be a game changer for the local community, a meeting heard last week.
Fergal McCarthy, principal of Kinsale Community School outlined the school’s ambitious plan to covert an unused gym into the state-of-the-art performance theatre with retractable seating, which is currently in its construction phase.
He is calling on Cork County Council to invest in their ambitious project by putting up half of the total cost.
‘It is an ambitious and lofty concept for a school to have but we want third-level facilities on a second-level campus and we have great facilities like a running track, a radio station, and coffee bar already,’ he said.
‘What Kinsale is missing is a good quality performance theatre which the people of the town can enjoy. We have already begun work on the retractable seating.’
He said repurposing and converting the gym into a new space will be valuable for the community of Kinsale and there are no facilities for the performing arts in the town, since the Municipal Hall has fallen into disrepair. He also said it can lend itself to screen films too.
Half of the funding for the project is to come from AIG. Their former chief financial officer, Shane Fitzsimons, who died last October and lived in Kinsale, donated €50,000 to the school running track, which is named in his honour.
‘AIG contacted us in February and said they wanted to give a contribution to Kinsale town in Shane’s memory and I told them about the concept of a performance theatre.
It is ironic that Shane’s dad, Gary had campaigned for years for a performance space in Kinsale but kept meeting a false dawn.’
He said that they are seeking €350,000 in capital funding from Cork County Council to help with their project.
‘We are going ahead with this project and we don’t want Cork County Council to miss an opportunity to support this.’
Fergal said that they are putting a management team in place who have an understanding of the arts to help move on the project.
‘It’s a no brainer. Even the insurance is covered by the school and we have a car park. All we are asking is to give us the capital to allow us continue our work.
The money we require is relatively modest considering the overall budget.’
