Nostalgia
Castlebar Library Celebrates 25 Years
By Alan King, Castlebar Library
28, May 2015 - 06:00

Castlebar Library is celebrating its 25th Anniversary on Thursday the 28th of May 2015. Built on the site of the 'old Protestant School' - Christ Church National School (1894) which later became the Gaelscoil 'Scoil Raifteiri'.

Castlebar Library - 2015

In November 1988, Padraig Flynn, Environment Minister turned the sod and the site was blessed by the Very Rev. Sean Blake, PP, Castlebar and the Rev. Henry Gilmore, Rector, Castlebar. Construction work commenced shortly afterwards. The design work was undertaken by Mayo County Councils Architects' Section who won a major award - the Plan Building of the Year Award 1990 for the Connaught Region.

The library was named the "Leabharlann Ui Mhaille" in honour of the late County Manager, Michael J. O'Malley, who put so much time and effort into bringing the project to fruition.

Exterior of the new library under construction - 1988-1990

On 14th February, 1990, library history was made, when Mayo County Council signed a contract with McDonnell Douglas Ltd., for the automation of the new Castlebar Central Library - one of the first Irish public Libraries to go live with a fully integrated Library Automation Package. It was a huge task - when the library opened, 17,000 records (details of 17,000 books) were created and also, the creation of membership records meant that the details of 2,500 existing members - names, addresses, enrolment & expiry dates were inputted into the computer system.

The library was officially opened by the Minister for the Environment on Monday 28th May, 1990 and cost £1.2 million.

The present site of Castlebar Library was formerly occupied by Christ Church National School, (1894) which later became the first premises of Scoil Raifteiri.

Since then the library has gone from strength to strength so if you're around Castlebar in the next while, pop in and say hello. There is also a small exhibition detailing the history of the branch inside the door.