Clones town presentation for Pride of Place 2011

1. Clones
Pride of Place
2011

2. Our Town
• Founded 6th
Century by St Tiarnach
• Located right along the border
– Border road closures had huge negative impact on
the town, both economically and socially
• Busy market town at centre of region,
crossroads for railway lines, road routes and
canal
– Sidelined and neglected with closure of the above

3. • Highest level of relative deprivation in Co
Monaghan
– 36% of adults primary education only
• Physical dereliction
• Closure of businesses
• Social divisions
– Highest % of ‘other’ religions

4. Impact of the Border
• Cut our hinterland in two
• Economic, social and religious wedge
• Roads cratered, army checkpoints
– Oppressive atmosphere
• Lost 25% of our population between 1991
and 2001
• Lost role as market town for region
– Widespread shop closures & dereliction

5. A Story of Strength
• Town’s decline is being overcome through
community partnership
• With other community groups
• With local authorities and state agencies
• With our neighbours across the border
• Working to re-establish:
• Our Economy
• Our Natural Hinterland
• Our Identity

6. Our Tradition of Self-Help
• First Co-Operative in the country
• First Credit Union in the country
• Strong ICA – local lady is past national
President
• Strong tradition of practical help:
– Civil defence very strong in Clones, dealing
with difficult situations all through the Troubles
– Regular winners at national level

7. Where it all started to come
together
• 1980’s: first community-led capital project in the
country
– Clones Development Society asked the question:
‘What can we do to improve our situation?’
– Fireside meetings, bringing community together to
discuss the options and buy in to the initiative
– Canal Stores bought & refurbished
– Funded by credit union shareholders voting to give
over 1% of their dividend
– Catalyst for all that followed
• Rekindled our self-belief

8. Building and Unifying
• Impetus of Clones Dev Society became catalyst
for renewed activity across all groups
• 1990’s: all community groups came together to
form a Forum
• Joined with the Local Authorities to form a
Regeneration Partnership
• 2000’s: formed Clones Erne East Partnership
with communities and Council in Fermanagh
• Clones Erne East Sports Partnership

9. Clones Community Forum
• Over 50 groups, covering everything from youth
affairs to disability
• Shared vision for the town
• Identified the need for building bridges locally to
re-establish normal social and cultural patterns
– Peacebuilding programme
– Involving everyone from ex political prisoners to old
age pensioners
– Real engagement by people from all sides of society

10. Clones Regeneration Partnership
• Partnership between
– Clones Community Forum
– Clones Town Council
– Monaghan County Council
• Aims to address physical dereliction in the
town
– Regeneration of Diamond & Fermanagh St
– Working now on 98 Ave and Barry McGuigan
Park

11. Clones Erne East Partnership
• Aims to re-establish the natural hinterland
of the town, which included east
Fermanagh
• Bringing back our lost generation
• Activity at multiple levels, from Local
Authority co-operation to hands-on
community work
• Physical re-connect of the region through
visual project – sandstone chairs

12. Shadow Youth Partnership
• Need to get young people engaged with the
community
• Cross-border programme which enables young
people to re-connect with their neighbours
• Also promotes the concept of active citizenship
and works to involve young people in local
decision-making
– Joint Policing Committees
– ‘Use your Vote’ campaign at election time
– Upcoming consultation on Barry McGuigan Park

13. Our Successes
• We have physical projects we want to show you,
BUT
• We are most proud of the Social Capital we
have built up over the past 15 years
– in what was a geographically and culturally split area
– All our physical infrastructure has come about to
facilitate the needs identified by our groups
• Here are some of the capital projects:

14. Capital projects
• Canal Stores
– Clones lace exhibition
• John Matthews Business Park
– The first community-led development of its kind in the county
• Protestant Hall
– Once stood in isolation, now very much part of the wider
community
• Cassandra Hand Centre
– Serves as meeting rooms & command centre for Forum
• PPP Largy College
– First public private partnership school in the country
– Facilities available to community after school hours
– Lands given up by local sports group to facilitate the project

15. • Childcare facility
– Developed by ex-political prisoners group, Clones
Failte
• Cluan Mhuire sheltered housing
– Developed by local people to facilitate family
members with special needs
• Clones Courthouse
– Refurbished with community in mind
– Removable court furniture, so space can be used as a
community venue
– Becomes a cinema during Clones Film Festival

16. • Clones Library
– Fought hard to keep the county library in Clones
– Extra facilities in the library enable additional
community activity to take place
– Meeting rooms facilitate much activity
• Ionad na nÓg
– Former school, given over to young people
– Home to thriving youth club, and also Shadow Youth
Partnership, which does much work around Active
Citizenship and rebuilding linkages with youth in
Fermanagh

17. The Programmes behind the
Buildings
• Focus on peacebuilding
– Clones Erne East Partnership’s ‘Healing Borders
Project’
• Sandstone chairs
– Clones Community Forum’s ‘One Year to heal Four
Hundred’
– Clones Erne East Sports Partnership’s ‘Peacebuilding
through Sport’
– All made possible through the on-the-ground, face-to-
face, true peacebuilding work engaged in by the
members of Clones Community Forum

18. Clones People are Creative
• Film Festival
• Flat Lake Festival
• Home to writers and artists of world
renown
• We use this creativity to find solutions to
the town’s problems
– Famine Commemoration
– Canal Capers
– ‘Book Town’

19. We have a Vision
• Ulster Canal
– The dream started with the community, and we have
nurtured it through to reality
– Canal Stores refurbished
– Waterways Ireland working on re-opening the canal
from Belturbet to Clones
– Local community working on regenerating areas of
the town which will be opened up by this development
– Clones Canal Capers festival helps to stimulate the
local appetite for the project

20. We look after our vulnerable people
– Older people
• Callcare service run by Clones Development Society
• St Joseph’s home
– Ex prisoners
• Bringing them into society through Clones Failte
– Young People
• Taking a lead role in new town enhancement project
– Foreign Nationals
• International Day bringing the whole community together
– Special Needs
• Cairde
• Cluain Mhuire

21. We do things Well….
• Our spirit of entrepreneurship/ thinking differently
gave the world:
– Lipton’s Tea
– The Credit Union movement
• We have a Tradition of Sporting Excellence:
– James Cecil Parke
• Rugby international, Wimbledon semi-finalist, Olympic silver
medallist in men’s doubles tennis
– Barry McGuigan, world boxing champion
– Clem McMahon, national showjumping champion
– Jonathan Douglas, Irish soccer international

22. …and We do things Big
– Sport as a Vehicle for Peace-Building
– €7 million from Peace III to develop Flagship
Sports facility in the town
– Will be one of a handful of Iconic Projects left
behind in the region to mark the Peace
Programme

23. The Finished Facility
• Will include:
– Sports pitches for cricket, hockey, bowling as well as
football (soccer and GAA)
– Athletics track
– Indoor facilities
– Changing facilities
– Perimeter walking track
• It’s not so much about the facilities, as what will
happen IN them that we’re proud of
– 2 year lead-in programme of Sport for Peace projects
to ensure we meet our objectives

24. What Next
• Much work still remains to be done on:
– Physical dereliction
– Re-establishing linkages with east Fermanagh
communities
– Protecting our heritage
– Reaching out to isolated members of our
community
– Building the tourism product which will ensure
the success of the Ulster Canal

25. Three upcoming initiatives
• Working with Clones Mart to reach ageing
farmers
– Combat isolation
– Targeted health information
• Revitalise the Market Town
– use old Butter Market to bring back Farmer’s Market
• Proposal to become Ireland’s ‘Book Town’
– Appropriate for the town which was brought vividly to
life in Pat McCabe’s ‘The Butcher Boy’
– A great way to spend a day, after drifting up the Ulster
Canal!

26. • We’re re-visiting our Community
Development Strategy this autumn, and
have a wide consultation programme to
ensure all are involved
• A vote of confidence in the people of
Clones from Co-Operation Ireland would
be a big boost to this process!