Some local children were pictured with musicans Ellen and Sinead Reidy, Ciara McCarthy, Chloe Farrell, Katelyn and Kate Davis.
Marie Keating Broadford Pride of Place
Broadford will feature on television screens next Sunday when TG4’s Nuacht programme showcases the village’s outstanding achievement in 2016, winning their category in the national Pride of Place competition.
A special reception was held in the local Day Care Centre last Sunday, and TG4 cameras were on hand to record a segment for next Sunday’s programme. Pride of Place is an annual event run by Co-Operation Ireland and a consortium of local authorities representatives known as the All-Island Local Authority Steering Forum. Through the competition, local people work together to create civic pride in their local community, showing respect and inclusion for every sector, and creating communities to which the people are proud to say they belong. This annual competition has become one of the most prestigious community awards on the island of Ireland. Broadford Development Association this week thanked everybody who attended last Sunday’s reception at the Day Care Centre.
With a population of 295, Broadford has a vibrant Development Association which over the past 30 years has undertaken a number of projects to maintain the cohesion of this rural community. This includes the redevelopment of the national school for use as a community centre; development of sheltered housing with a day care facility; creation of a community crèche; development of an arboretum and millennium garden; and upgrading of community facilities. The Enterprise Centre was completed in 2011 and the playground was developed in 2013. In 2014 the rural walks were upgraded and re-routed, with signage.
In their citation, the Pride of Place judges stated as follows: Broadford Development Association has undertaken a prod-igious amount of work through the years including developing social housing, providing great sporting facilities, building an enterprise centre and many other initiatives. This above all is a caring com-munity with a wonderful cohort of young people justifiably and demon-strably proud of their place.