We now stand at another critical juncture in preserving Gort’s heritage for future generations. The beautiful and historic Gort Convent building has started to decline and we need Government support for Galway County Council proposal to acquire it.
In 1985, Gort suffered a major blow to its heritage when the infamous Gort Mill was levelled. This caused deep distress across the town and community, and today, the only remnants of the mill are the large millstones in Canon Quinn Park.
We now stand at another critical juncture in preserving Gort’s heritage for future generations. The beautiful and historic Gort Convent building is in crisis. On November 21st, 2024, the convent officially shut its doors. For a time, it served as a refuge for Ukrainian refugees, who helped keep the lights on after the Sisters of Mercy vacated the building in 2022. Now, without intervention, the convent building is destined for decline. This won’t be the rapid demolition that befell the mill, but rather a slow but assured decay that has already begun.
The Convent of Mercy in Gort, County Galway, has a rich history dating back to the 18th century. Originally known as Bridge House, it was built around 1770 by John Prendergast Smyth, who later became Lord Gort. In 1857, the Sisters of Mercy established a convent there under the leadership of Mother Aloysius Doyle, a veteran of the Crimean War. They expanded the house to accommodate their growing community and made significant contributions to education and healthcare in the area.
After more than 160 years of service, the Sisters departed in August 2022. The building was repurposed to house Ukrainian refugees, continuing its legacy of service.
The convent is a significant Gort landmark. It reflects the town’s evolving story—from private residence to religious institution, to a centre for community life, and most recently, a place of refuge.
The Plan
Over the past eight years, the idea of transforming the convent into a multi-purpose community hub was progressively developed by local community enthusiasts and activists into a proposal, backed by the Gorgeous Gort Forum, culminating in a submission to Galway County council in 2021. (See blog post here). An application was submitted to the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) to purchase the convent, but it was rejected due to uncertainty over whether the building might be donated under the religious redress scheme.
In 2022, during the development of the Gort Town Centre First Plan, the convent was identified as a critical asset for the town’s regeneration. The final plan, released in November 2023, highlighted the convent as an ideal location for a much-needed remote working, cultural, and community space. At the plan’s launch, Galway County Council Chief Executive Liam Conneely assured the community that when things progressed from paper to plans, the funding would follow.
Galway County Council’s Chief Executive Liam Conneely with Gort Town Team
The convent project is also a key objective in the Gort Local Area Plan 2025–2031.
In February 2025, Galway County Council submitted a second application to the RRDF to acquire the convent building.
This time, it simply has to happen. Without funding, the convent building—and its chapel, gardens, and historic grounds—will rapidly deteriorate into a shell.
What needs to happen?
The funding decision now rests with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, under Minister Dara Calleary. We need strong support from our public representatives: Minister Seán Canney, Louis O’Hara TD, Peter Roche TD, and Albert Dolan TD as well as our county councillors: Cllr. Geraldine Donohue, Cllr. PJ Murphy, Cllr Paul Killilea, Cllr. Martina Kinane, Cllr. Gerry Finnerty, Cllr. Ivan Canning, Cllr. Michael Regan, Cllr. Declan Kelly, Cllr. Moegie Maher and Cllr. Jimmy McClearn.
Galway County Council has brought the project this far. Now, we need a clear decision from the Minister to secure this heritage treasure for future generations.
We recommend you reach out to these people and ask them to contact Minister Dara Calleary to highlight the priority of this project.
There is a great opportunity to get an even more Gorgeous Gort as part of the emerging Gort Town Centre First masterplan. Its important to give feedback and raise any concerns on the emerging proposal.
Artists impressions of Gort Town Centre First plan (Source : BPD)
Gort is getting a great opportunity to reshape itself for the future to the benefit of residents & businesses of the town and the communities around South Galway and North Clare. This is a once in a generation opportunity to setup the town for success for the future and getting a really Gorgeous Gort!
While the Gort Town Centre First and public realm improvement proposal has an outlook until 2040, if we take a snapshot of some of the key aspects of the town into the next 5-6 years then we can hopefully see :
There is no Biogas plant in the vicinity of the town !
We have a national cycleway route within 1km of the town
We have an extended Gort River Walk and additional pedestrian connectivity across the town
We have 100s of additional residents and even more businesses and services
The town and environs are no longer at risk of severe flooding.
We have a much more connected bus and train service.
We may have our challenges also. While Gort is a natural ’stop’ along the Cork- Galway driving route for services, there is significant business interests by Applegreen/Supermacs in getting a new forecourt/plaza along this M18 between Gort and Ennis. In 2016 Applegreen successfully blocked an M18 forecourt/plaza proposed by Supermacs and highlighted that “it is inevitable that the proposed development will become a local destination in its own right, competing directly with local petrol stations and local shops and restaurants in Ennis”. By 2020 Supermac’s had lodged its 4th application so they are not giving up. This type of development will draw people way from Gort because it will be more convenient to stop in a service station forecourt rather than going another into a small town.
Gort as a Destination
One of the key aspects of the Gort Town Centre first plan and public realm enhancement project is to make Gort town centre a ‘destination’ . While we have great attractions in the environs around the town (Coole Park, Ballylee, ..) , the idea is to make the town centre itself a safer, attractive and popular destination for visitors, tourists, town residents and wider community. From my work on the Gort River Walk, I meet many visitors from outside the town e.g. a person from Claremorris who frequently comes for the lovely walk and a spot of lunch on his journey back from Limerick. What if more visitors came and they stayed longer ?
If the red-route cycleway goes ahead we want a safer town centre with easy access to services. We want people to ‘take a break’ and stay in or around the town, buy supplies or go for food and drinks. There is substantial evidence of cycleways reenergising local communities and surveys from the Waterford Greenway (who got 100,000 people in 1st year) said that people had an average daily spend on €30 on food/drink and €110 if they stayed overnight. So from an economic point of view, it shows the opportunity that is there to help with local economy, services and jobs. Of course Gort is only one stop along the route so we don’t want people to skip it!. We need to ensure that Gort Town Centre offers attractions to visitors – It’s safe, scenic and has all the services people want for cyclists, hikers. Having good train/bus connectivity meant that Gort could be a very popular starting/stopping point. There is a potential opportunity to bring the Red Route link directly in via a bridge link to Barrack St where people can arrive directly into the town centre. (See (14) below.
Artists impression including aspirational link to Gort River Walk via Barrack st
Slowing the flow
While it can be attractive to visitor/tourists it’s important that the Gort Town Plan and public realm delivers some key differences to the town. The plan includes that the town will be more attractive and safer to walk around. This includes fixed pedestrian walkways, greenery and interspersed seating and wider forecourt for businesses. This is very important for the safety of our children and elderly.
Artists impressions of Gort Town Centre First plan (Source : BPD)
New Parks and amenity linkage
Artists impression of an upgraded Cannon Quinn Park. (Source BPD)
The plan includes an aspirational public river-side park opposite Centra! This future amenity would include an extension of the Gort River Walk on its journey South, which in the future could include pedestrian linkages across to church St/Tubber road. As well as giving a fantastic amenity to residents, this will make the town and additional attraction for visitors. There is also significant improvements to Cannon Quinn park, with a lot of input from students at Gort Community School, including activity pockets, an amphitheatre for events in the park and pedestrian linkage to the square. The Amphitheatre will be supportive of events like ‘Poetry in the Park’ or local, visiting artists/musicians, providing a platform for people and again draw more people into the town.
Artists impression of Canon Quinn ParkAspirational new town park and Gort River Walk Extension
Gort River walk extension and new bridges
This plan brings a whole new energy to Gort River walk by extending it South and adding 3 new footbridges – one to Barrack St, one to convent grounds and on toward Canon Quinn Park and one to cross toward River Walk Estate/Supervalu, Tubber road. This will link in with a new pedestrian link to Gort Community school (using an existing railway underpass) . This will be the Gort River Walk South Extension and it will be fantastic!
Aspirational new town park and Gort River Walk Extension
New Square vision
Artists impression of new Gort Town Square
Gort from is history has been a market town and was fundamental part of the town economy. The new plan includes a significant modification of the square to make it an attractive destination. Whether you’ve cycled in directly in from the Red Route cycleway or you have parked in one of the near free car parks you will arrive at the square. There’s plenty of safe space and several places to eat/drink and to shop around. The plan has also ‘events’ in mind which can be used to host the return of our great athletes, hurling/camogie/boxing teams. I can be used for outdoor concerts and events. The area could also host food/craft fairs, artist exhibitions.
This area will be a 2 minute walk from proposed new car parks meaning it will still be very accessible.
Parking
Parking is always a big issue in town and there’s a natural reluctance to ‘lose’ parking in the town centre but there’s a much more to the story than that. Gort town centre has 437 parking space and the plan is to increase this to 477 (increase in 40 spaces). It is a however bit more complicated than that. It’s when you look at the type of parking that things get more interesting. I’ve talked with some local business owners and they have indicated that many of the car parking spaces in the town are taken by staff and commuters in fact about a 1/4 of the Cars parked in the town are there for over 3 hours. The strategy that the team is look at incentivising commuters/staff to use new off-street parking to free up 100+ spaces. Along with this the proposal is to have free 15-minute slots to encourage frequent turn-over, meaning that this more accessible parking in the town centre for everyone. The plan also includes provision of age friendly and accessible parking spaces in key locations to make the town centre safe and accessible for all members of the community.
This is good for businesses as the town centre would have more ‘economy’ parking that would allow one-stop type of shopping – increasing the economic impact from those parking spaces. It’s good for business and it also reduces the circulation of traffic looking for parking in the town centre, making it a safer place for pedestrians. Another positive impact is that if people park in dedicated free parking, it gives them more time to browse and shop around and pop in for a coffee or meal even. Of course, we absolutely need bicycle parking for our cyclists. So overall, the plan has a lot of merit and positive impacts.
It’s important to note, if we want these areas to be free parking – we need our local councillors to vote on this. It’s up to us to ensure that this happens.
Go Gorgeous Gort!
I’ve done a great deal of travelling, and I remember many of the small towns where you turn into the town centre, local square and know you have arrived. There’s a buzz of activity, there’s cafes, restaurants, shops. There are people sitting, chatting, walking cycling – a mix of locals and visitors. We want to create this attraction in Gort for our own locals and visitors. This is a way to deliver an even more Gorgeous Gort!
Gort has always had great potential and I honestly think that this plan is great for the future go Gort and South Galway – It’s a great benefit for most of the businesses and for the general public. The town will be much more attractive. For visitors, tourists – Gort will be a real destination and will bring a significant increase in tourism, this will bring an increase in our local economy. For residents and wider community, it offers a safer town centre, more amenities and .. with increased economy more jobs and opportunities.
Give feedback!
While I’ve discussed some of the broad strokes – there will of course be many individual and unique concerns with the emerging plans. Have they got it right initially?? Probably not – that’s why we need to give some critical feedback. Support the positives where you can and express concerns if you have them! This plan is very important to Gort, South Galway and North Clare. It’s important to become engaged and give feedback on this emerging proposal e.g.
Do you want more trees or less trees?
More parking or less parking and e.g. more accessible parking?
Doi you want more traffic calming and if so, where?
Do you want more permanent pedestrian crossings?
Do you want a cycle network from the schools to the square?
What do you think of the Gort River Walk Extensions?
The project team need feedback from as many people as possible to please click below to see how you can support this project – it can take a few seconds to send on very quick feedback or a few minutes to send on more detailed feedback,
Gort Town Centre First Plan 