Cllr Sarah O’Reilly at the switching on of the Christmas lights in Cavan Town last year.

Cavan shines bright

The lighting up of Cavan Town is the signal that Christmas is well on the way. That illumination comes as a result of the hard work and voluntary efforts of the members of the Town Team.

Declan Breslin of the Cavan Town Team, thanked the businesses who supported the voluntary groups effort to create a Christmas atmosphere: “There are a lot of people working behind the scenes to make the Christmas lights come on each year, we have to say a hearty thanks to the businesses that support us to make it happen.”

Last year the Town Team introduced new lights to brighten the town over the festive season. In a particularly difficult year, the aim was to entice people to shop locally and help local businesses survive the challenges presented by Covid.

The project was supported by County Cavan Local Community Development Committee (LCDC), Cavan County Council, Breffni Integrated CLG, the Department of Rural and Community Development and LEADER funding, which financed 75% of the project.

The Town Team Plan initiative was introduced into Cavan Town in 2016. It aims to support local people to have a prosperous and vibrant town, of which they can be proud.

“The Town Team have done a lot of work in the last year. We started with the painting scheme. This facilitated the issuing of grants by the county council to businesses to paint their premises and has brightened up the town. We also introduced the canopies and new seats on the town square. It has brought a vibrancy into the centre of town that has been unoccupied for so long,” Declan told the Celt.

The Town Team activist says 2021 has presented difficulties: “Putting up the Christmas lights, the tree and other of the festive decorations have been challenging. So many business have closed in the last two years and we rely on funding from those businesses.”

Declan says the Town Team are always looking to recruit more members: “We would love to see more people joining the Town Team. Cavan has a very strong community spirit. By joining the Town Team people make a very real contribution to that community. The more members we have the more projects we can undertake. If we had a few more members like Brian Allen, who has done Trojan work on this project, we could get even more done.”