AN ORANGE LODGE that had their premises burnt to the ground in Donegal has received an offer to share facilities from a local GAA club.
The Orange Order Hall in Newtowncunningham was burnt to the ground after an arson attack last month. At the current time no one has been apprehended for the crime.
Now however, local GAA club Naomh Colmcille have come forward with an offer to share facilities with the Orange Lodge.
‘Bridge the gap’
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, chairman of Naomh Colmcille, said, “we have the facilities available and we made a decision as a committee that we would make them available in whenever way they are needed.”
We would hope it puts out a message that whoever does this does not represent our side of the community… until the culprits are found the finger is pointed at everybody and we don’t need that in our community. If we can help to bridge the gap then we are happy to.
While the offer has been warmly received by the Newtowncunningham Orange Lodge – it is understood that they were already using facilities from a neighboring lodge.
The decisions to offer the club’s facilities came about after a committee vote was taken on it – which passed unanimously.
Response
Responding to the offer, the Lodge’s treasurer Stewart McClean told TheJournal.ie:
We received the letter from the local GAA club. By the time we got the letter – the next lodge over from us offered us their premises and we took them up on that offer… it’s very important that someone from a different perspective came forward and it gave us brave heart.
Repair work to the building is expected to cost in the region of €300,000 with an additional €100,000 needed for internal repair work.
Other incident
A separate incident occurred in the town of Convoy, Co Donegal earlier this month when a Presbyterian Church was also targeted. Two men appeared before Letterkenny Court earlier this month in relation to the incident.
Comment from the Orange Order is pending.
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