Shankill’s Shanganagh Park House was the subject matter for one of the segments of RTE’s Capital D programme earlier this month.
The house, which is run as a community centre, has seen an upsurge in interested course applicants since the episode was broadcast.
Course co-ordinator Anne Farrell believes the Capital D episode will only enhance the centre’s already growing reputation.
“The publicity really has helped us here”, she says. “A lot of local people didn’t know we were here at all until now and there have been a lot more enquiries about the courses we run here since the programme”.
Although course applicants are on the increase, Anne still thinks that older members of the Shankill community are not being helped enough. “A lot more could be done for the elderly here”, she says. “There are not really any other courses for them in the area, apart from the ones we have here”.
Children’s play groups, adult education classes and senior citizen’s courses are all run in the house every weekday. Situated in the middle of the Rathsallagh estate, the house is ideally located for people in the community to get together on a regular basis.
The massive Georgian house has certainly seen many ups and downs over the years. In 1984 a basement fire destroyed much of the building and it was not opened again until 1987. Another fire in 1992 caused it to close its doors once more. It wasn’t re-opened again until 1993 when president Mary Robinson was on hand to snip the re-opening ribbons.
More than one million euro was spent on refurbishing the house in 2005. Funding was obtained by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the Department of Environment and Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
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