An emotional and sad but also celebratory lunch was enjoyed by locals in Dublin's East Wall yesterday as they gathered to mark the last day of their community centre as they know it.
The Seán O'Casey Community Centre closed yesterday in advance of a €9 million redevelopment project part-funded by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and the Government.
The centre, housed in a former boys' national school, has been open for 23 years, and among those at yesterday's senior citizens' lunch were men who had attended school in the same building.
Willie Dwyer, chairman of the community centre's board, described the day as "very emotional, but great too".
The most important services run from the centre - activities for both senior citizens and pre-school children - will be operated from alternative facilities for the next two years while the new centre is being built.
"The new centre will have a whole range of facilities we don't offer at the moment," said Mr Dwyer. "The pre-school will have different rooms, its own gardens and facilities, and it will be able to take up to 70 children. At the moment, it has about 35.
"The senior citizens will have their own gardens, their own conservatory and a hairdresser. There will be a 150-seat theatre; there will be a gym, games rooms, pottery rooms and a coffee dock for people to just drop in," he added.
Mr Dwyer said that the funding and plans had come about because the community had spent five years lobbying for them.
"The people of East Wall really deserve this and it will mean the full integration of the community into the redevelopment of the docklands," he said.
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