Campaign launched to lobby for the new swimming pool in Buncrana
Local mother Jade O’Neill-Doherty says a generation of children in Inishowen has grown up without access to swimming lessons locally
A grassroots campaign aimed at expediting the construction of a new swimming pool in Buncrana was launched last week, with organiser Jade O’Neill-Doherty saying she hopes it will help spur the delivery of the badly missed leisure centre.
A local mother, Ms O’Neill-Doherty is acutely aware that a generation of children has grown up unable to swim because the former leisure centre has been closed for more than a decade.
“There’s a lot of talk about the swimming pool, but I couldn’t find anywhere that the perspective of ordinary people was being shared,” Ms O’Neill-Doherty said.
“I thought setting up a social media page would create more interest and generate more publicity about it instead of relying on local councillors mentioning it once a month after a meeting.
“It’s such a shame it closed. People really miss it and just want it back.”
She has been somewhat taken aback by the response so far, with more than 1,000 followers joining her Buncrana Leisure Centre Campaign page on Facebook.
Other people have also reached out to Jade, and the tentative plan is to form an action group to campaign for a new pool, although she said it is still early days.
“All I can say is that we intend to campaign constantly, rather than having the issue swept under the carpet,” she said.
“It’ll be good to bring other people on board, rather than sitting on our hands.”
Ms O’Neill-Doherty highlighted the importance of swimming and water safety as vital life skills, particularly in coastal areas where good weather draws people to local beaches.
Aquatics is mandatory under the primary school curriculum, and Inishowen schools have been taking pupils to swimming pools in Derry for lessons. As the lessons are not funded by the Department of Education, many schools seek voluntary contributions from parents to cover the cost of buses, pool rental and instructors.
Primary schools from all over Inishowen used the old leisure centre for lessons up until the pool closed at the end of 2014, and it has been badly missed.
“I think of the two wee boys who drowned last year,” she said. “They lived right beside the swimming pool, and if it had been open they would have learned how to swim.”
The campaign comes against the backdrop of a long-running effort to restore swimming facilities in Buncrana following the closure of the town’s public pool more than a decade ago.
The Buncrana Leisure Centre opened in 1989. It obtained a €3.8 million grant for refurbishment in 2005, but that was never drawn down. The centre closed for renovation in 2015 and has remained shuttered ever since. Planning permission was granted for the new pool premises in 2024.
An application for €11.7 million to demolish the derelict leisure centre and build a new swimming pool under the Government's Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) in 2024 was unsuccessful. Under the application, Donegal County Council controversially identified the ATU regional sports and activity hub in Letterkenny as the number one priority project in the county, while national governing body Swim Ireland ranked Buncrana third out of three projects on its list of State priorities.
Since then, Buncrana Community Leisure Centre Co-Operative Society Ltd, which acquired the site on which the premises stands from the Mercy Sisters in October 2018, has gone into voluntary liquidation and is in the process of transferring the site to Donegal County Council.
The Department of Sport has issued a €2 million grant to the council to carry out detailed design work for the new pool.
Donegal County Council is now seeking funding to commence construction on the €17 million project and will have to provide €5 million in match funding from its own resources.