21.01.2015
President Michael D Higgins to Open the Carry Centre at Holy Trinity, Killiney
President Michael D Higgins will perform the official reopening of the Carry Centre, the parish centre of Holy Trinity, Killiney, on Sunday January 25 at 3.00 pm. The newly refurbished centre will be blessed by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson. The President will be welcomed by the Rector, the Revd Niall Sloane.
Over the past six months, the parish has undertaken works to upgrade the Carry Centre to enable the wider community to benefit from the hall. As a parish, Holy Trinity, is committed to rebuilding a sense of community amongst all the residents of Killiney. They have identified the parochial hall as a catalyst for this development.
The upgrading works have brought the hall in line with current regulations and with 21st century expectations. The project has received some small grants from private charities but the majority of funding has come from within the parish through gifts and loans.
In addition to the Centre’s current usage, the new hall could be a venue for potential new activities including a mother and toddler group, clinics/workshops, educational activities, senior citizens clubs and socials, integration of non–Irish citizens to the community, ministry to children and young people, youth organisations and groups, local clubs and environmental and heritage awareness events and workshops.
The Revd Niall Sloane said the refurbished centre was part of the parish’s plan to strengthen its outreach to the community and contribute more to the development of the surrounding area by meeting the needs of the locality.
“We hope the Centre will provide an invaluable base which those, with the necessary skills but lacking a venue, could utilize to the locality’s benefit. Such developments would be seen as generally putting heart into the broader community, which has very little in terms of such collective activities or events, and currently does not even have a venue where such events may take place.
We are delighted that President Higgins will formally open the Centre in January 2015,” he stated.
The original parochial hall was dedicated and officially opened by the Most Revd Dr George Otto Simms, Archbishop of Dublin on Sunday 10 May 1958. Since then it has been a focal point for numerous activities, socials, clubs and events.
In November 1986 the hall was renamed ‘The Carry Hall’ as a tribute to Canon Austin Carry who retired that year and in recognition of the support which he gave to this project. It is now being renamed ‘The Carry Centre’.
Photo caption: The Carry Centre was opened to Parishioners of Holy Trinity Killiney for the first time last Sunday (January 18).