Illumination of St. Colman’s Cathedral, COBH

See You In Cobh and Cobh Tourism Ltd. are delighted to announce that the illumination of St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh with LED lighting will proceed early in 2012 and should be completed by St. Patrick’s Day. The Cathedral is an iconic landmark building of stunning architecture that dominates the town and whose beauty and appeal will be further enhanced by its illumination.

In 2010 See You In Cobh embarked on an ambitious fundraising drive to illuminate the Cathedral. It firmly believed that the illumination of thebuilding will encourage people to stay in Cobh longer or to visit the townat night with the adherent economic benefits accruing to the businesses ofCobh. It was also felt that the project would further enhance the sense of place and pride in their town of the people of Cobh.

The *“An Audience with ….”* series of concerts was launched which were well supported by the talented performers and the people of Cobh throughout the autumn of 2010 and the spring of 2011. By last summer the matched funding capital requirement for an application to be made to South and East Cork Area Development for grant assistance for the project had been raised.

In the past week it was learned that this application was successful and that South and East Cork Area Development Ltd (SECAD) will provide up to 75% of the cost of the lighting project for St. Colman’s Cathedral through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the National Development Plan.

The running costs to light the entire south and west elevations of the building are a quite remarkable 23 cent per hour because of the new LED technology that will be used and this means an annual running cost of less than €500 per annum. The previous lighting scheme had annual running costs in excess of €12,000 which is clearly unsustainable.

Speaking about the project, the chairman of See You In Cobh, Hendrick Verwey thanked Fr. Michael Leamy, the administrator of Cobh Parish for his foresight, cooperation and assistance in making this project happen. “The seed capital for the project was raised by the people of Cobh by sustained community effort and this is a clear message that communities acting together can achieve great things. The assistance of SECAD means that we have achieved our goal very much sooner,” he concluded.