New mural unveiled in Ferbane

A new mural painted by St Hilda's services users has been unveiled in Ferbane.

The colourful new art can be seen at St Mary's Hall , located beside the secondary school on the banks of the River Brosna.

Coreena Cassells, who works with the service users, said that they were out for a walk one day and noticed the premises and thought it “would be nice to do something creative that would brighten up the building.”

Some of the service users volunteer with Tidy Towns in Ferbane, and one service user attends their meetings and wanted to create the mural. “The service users immediately showed an interest in this project and were all motivated to get involved and play their part,” Ms Cassells added.

The railway bridge and River Brosna were identified as key features in the town. There was a discussion about colours, and it was decided that the Ferbane GAA colours should be used along with the Offaly crest and the Tidy Towns logo to capture the togetherness of the community and to represent the local volunteers. Keith Flynn drew a few different images which the service users painted and there was a group discussion on which would best represent the building's heritage and relevance to the local community.

Mick Keegan painted the building and Ronan Corcoran prepared the areas to put up the art pieces.

It is hoped that this project will inspire further community use for St Mary’s Hall.

Service users painted the wood white and then Keith drew the images on the wood. He supported the service users to paint the images and used masking tape to identify the areas to be painted. Service users worked on this project every Wednesday morning for two hours and it took approximately 16 to 18 months to complete the three art pieces. On completion, all service users involved signed their work.

John Dunican kindly contributed to the cost of the materials used for the project and Brian Flynn of the An Síolán group measured the windows and doors and cut the wood to sizes.

Some of the service users who live in Ferbane knew the history of the hall and remembered what it was used for previously.

They, along with the support from Keith searched for images of attractions in the town and decided to use musical instruments and symbols to represent the Céilí bands and Irish traditional musicians that have performed in the hall for generations.

Ms Cassells said that the service users were “delighted” with how the mural turned out and have received “great compliments” from members of the community.

One service user went to a workshop on the reimagining St Mary's Hall and he spoke to all attending about the mural.

Ferbane Tidy Towns said that the detail and work that went into the mural is phenomenal. “St Hilda’s service users researched the history of the hall and heritage of Ferbane which inspired images of musical instruments, the Offaly Crest, railway bridge and River Brosna.

“Huge thanks to the service users and staff for the time they gave this fabulous project.”