A major new riverside development complete with boat building stations, retail outlets and ‘turn up and try’ rowing and sailing services is set to make Cork city a maritime mecca by 2020.
The plans, dubbed as “extensive” by Minister Simon Coveney, were unveiled yesterday by community boat building organisation Meitheal Mara.
It wants to create a new activity hub for current and future members on a centrally-located site adjacent to the River Lee and downstream of the city’s bridges.
The commercial and shared facilities centre would include a boatyard workshop for members to build boats. A viewing area lets visiting members of the public view the process, while additional facilities allow visitors to turn their hands at woodworking.
Lord Mayor Des Cahill, Minister Simon Coveney, Cathy Buchanan GM Meitheal Mara and Martin Ryan Chairman Meitheal Mara pictured at the Port of Cork, for the launch of Meitheal Mara’s ambitious plans for the realisation of an integrated maritime hub for Cork City. www.meithealmara.ie
Images By Gerard McCarthy
The building would also incorporate office spaces, boat storage facilities, changing rooms, meeting rooms, exhibition spaces, a café and a shop to sell wood crafts.
More activity-based plans include taster rowing and sailing sessions for tourists and visitors, walking and cycling trails, trim trails, a pump track for off-road, rough terrain cycling, a fixed orienteering course, and access to the River Lee Blueway.
Meitheal Mara intends to have the centre up and running within the next three to four years.
While the organisation has a site in mind, it said it was not yet in a position to reveal its exact location.
Minister Simon Coveney, however, who was on hand yesterday to launch Meitheal Mara’s five-year strategic plan which includes details of the development, said he has seen drawings and plans for the hub.
“It’s quite an extensive development. The site they have in mind may well be given to them by the City Council, but I suspect they’ll still need to do a lot of fundraising and get a lot of sponsorship for the overall development,” he said.
“But this is an opportunity to build something permanent that can be part of Cork’s future maritime heritage and culture and history… to create a significant maritime centre with the kind of community cooperation and spirit that Meitheal Mara has become very well known for in the city.”
The Minister said he, for one, would be affording Meitheal Mara “all the help” he can give.
Martin Ryan, chairperson of the board of Meitheal Mara, said the new hub will be one of inclusion and mutual respect.
“Our focus is very much that it has to be, it needs to be, suitable for the whole city. That’s what Meitheal Mara is all about. It can’t be a space only certain groups of people can come into, it has to be for everybody,” he said.
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