122 projects to be awarded €7.5 million in funding under the 2025 Community Monuments Fund.
Sligo awarded over €370,000 to protect archaeological monuments
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD, and Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity, Christopher O'Sullivan TD, have today announced the 122 projects that will be awarded €7.5 million in funding under the 2025 Community Monuments Fund. These grants help owners and custodians of archaeological monuments to safeguard them into the future.
The Community Monuments Fund supports a range of initiatives to conserve, maintain, protect and promote local monuments and historic sites. This investment safeguards monuments for the benefit of communities and the public. It does so by enabling conservation works and repairs as well as building resilience through protecting monuments from the effects of extreme weather and climate change. The scheme also encourages public access and improvements to the presentation of local monuments.
Welcoming the investment, Minister Browne said:
"I am delighted to announce these awards under the 2025 Community Monuments Fund. The importance of our archaeological heritage cannot be overstated and this fund has a very real and profound impact on the custodians and communities in our cities, villages, towns and countryside.
“I sincerely thank the owners of archaeological monuments for their dedication to the preservation of our wonderful heritage. This investment will ensure that our built heritage can continue to be enjoyed by local and visiting communities, as well as acting to create work and preserve important traditional skills in towns and villages right across Ireland”
Minister of State O’Sullivan added:
“Since this fund was first introduced in 2020, it has invested €25.5 million in communities nationwide. It is now a bedrock of our support for archaeological heritage across the country helping conserve buildings as varied as churches, round towers, castles, forts, barracks and abbeys.
"This scheme helps to build robustness in our heritage against the extremes of weather, addressing key actions in our Climate Adaptation Plan as well as under Heritage Ireland 2030. These awards also deliver jobs for the heritage sector and traditional skills craftspeople, providing thousands of hours of employment every year.”
The core objective of the Community Monuments Fund is to support the conservation, maintenance, protection, and promotion of local monuments and historic sites, in alignment with the aims of the government’s new heritage plan, Heritage Ireland 2030, and the Climate Change Sectoral Adaptation Plan. The scheme contains a range of measures that seek to enable conservation to be carried out on archaeological monuments in need of urgent support, encourage access to these monuments and improve their presentation, and build resilience to enable these monuments to withstand the effects of climate change.
The scheme offers three funding streams to support a broad range of measures aimed at protecting and promoting archaeological monuments, including emergency conservation repair works at monuments, masonry repair, the development of Conservation Management Plans, access infrastructure and installation of interpretation signage, and communication projects aimed at disseminating knowledge of Ireland’s archaeological heritage.
Five Sligo projects are to benefit under CMF 2025 as follows:
Aghanagh Church, Ballinafad. Co. Sligo - €100,000 for phased conservation works.
Moygara Castle - €100,000 for emergency stabilization works to the southwest tower.
Enniscrone Castle - €118,671 for phase 2 conservation works to complete essential structural repairs.
Court Abbey, Lavagh - €30,000 for the preparation of a conservation management plan for the site.
Killaspugbrone Church & Graveyard - €22,263 for the preparation of a conservation management plan for the site.
Welcoming the funding announcement, Cllr. Declan Bree, Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council said:
“I am delighted to see Sligo benefitting under the Community Monuments Fund 2025. The funding will help protect our wonderful archaeological heritage and make it more accessible to the many who cherish it. It will also provide much needed support to local communities, private custodians, as well as archaeologists, conservation architects, stone masons, and other professional trades. Conservation projects rely hugely on broad community support and the availability of traditional building skills, the Community Monuments Fund brings these aspects together for the benefit of our heritage and the wider community.”
Cllr. Dónal Gilroy, Chairperson of Sligo Heritage Forum added:
"The phenomenal impact and success of the Community Monuments Fund is a result of the close working relationship between the Department’s National Monuments Service and Local Authorities. Working in partnership with local communities, they highlight the important role of communities when it comes to cherishing and caring for our outstanding heritage. We are very grateful to all of the custodians and community groups who work tirelessly with us under this fund to care for Sligo’s heritage.”