Keshcarrigan

Community note

Around Keshcarrigan

Keshcarrigan has the Old Barracks as a community-space project. Shannonside reported that Keshcarrigan Development Association had planning permission to develop the old Garda Barracks, phase one was complete and the next stage was hoped to begin the following year, with chairperson Paddy McGreevy calling it a huge project. A public fundraiser lists EUR3,640 raised toward a EUR20,000 target and says the building dates from 1861, was granted to the development association on a long lease in January 2024, and is planned as a community/resource/heritage centre with meeting rooms, working hubs, indoor/outdoor play areas and a museum or cultural interpretative space. Tailor McKeon's, Leanna's Lodge, Gerties Canal Stop, canal/lake visitors and tea-day fundraisers sit around that project. The local fundraising side keeps the Old Barracks story active: Shannonside says locals maintained the building after the Garda station closed in 2013, and the GoFundMe fundraiser says the 1861 barracks was granted to the development association on a long lease in January 2024. Recent development-association notices add the practical pieces: a yard sale at the Astro units with proceeds for the Barracks, and a one-off community heritage workshop about the building's future. Calendar sales, race-night style fundraising, Gertie's, Tailor McKeon's, canal visitors, lake activity and ordinary local trading all sit around the same building. Shannonside's June housing item adds another current civic line: four completed one-bedroom apartments in Keshcarrigan had remained vacant since December, with the council saying August allocation was expected once right-of-way and easement issues involving Uisce Eireann were resolved. The local noticeboard also had the ordinary trade and evening-life side: household pieces for sale and Pete's Pizza at Gertie's Bar from 5.30pm to sellout.