16 April 2025
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
The Government has today announced the 122 projects that will be awarded €7.5 million in funding under the 2025 Community Monuments Fund. These grants help owners and custodians of archaeological monuments to safeguard them into the future.
Cork North West Fine Gael TD John Paul O’Shea said “I am delighted to see the announcement of these awards under the 2025 Community Monuments Fund. I am grateful to the owners for their hard work and dedication shown to the preservation of our heritage. These sites are visited not only by the local communities but by many people further away who show great interest in these sites.
The Community Monuments Fund supports a range of initiatives to conserve, maintain, protect and promote local monuments and historic sites. This investment safeguards monuments for the benefit of communities and the public. It does so by enabling conservation works and repairs as well as building resilience through protecting monuments from the effects of extreme weather and climate change. The scheme also encourages public access and improvements to the presentation of local monuments.
The awards granted as part of this year’s Community Monuments Fund for Cork North West include:
- Dún Dea-radhairc €18,081.00
Other sites in Cork:
- St Annes Church Shandon €130,000
- Churchtown Graveyard €100,000
- Carrigtwohill Abbey Tower €65,854.19
- Cloyne Round Tower €130,000
- Abbeymahon €24,784
- St Mary’s Schull €24,784.50
- Togher Castle €3,542.40
Since this fund was first introduced in 2020, it has invested €25.5 million in communities nationwide. It is now a bedrock of our support for archaeological heritage across the country helping conserve buildings as varied as churches, round towers, castles, forts, barracks and abbeys.
This scheme helps to build robustness in our heritage against the extremes of weather, addressing key actions in our Climate Adaptation Plan as well as under Heritage Ireland 2030. These awards also deliver jobs for the heritage sector and traditional skills craftspeople, providing thousands of hours of employment every year.