Year in Review: Looking back on the news across Louth in March 2025

March 4th

The Cooley community came together in March in an outpouring of support for the Walker family after a tragic house fire destroyed their home and all their belongings.

Packy and Amanda Walker, along with their four children—Sophie, Sarah, Shannon, and Patrick—lost everything in the blaze.

Fortunately, no one was injured, but the family faced the daunting challenge of rebuilding their lives, made even more difficult by the fact that their house insurance had lapsed.
Friends and neighbors, determined to help, launched a GoFundMe campaign to provide immediate financial assistance for the family, raising over €60k.

11th March

There was a great turnout in March at Hoey's Lane in Muirhevnamor, for the official launch of the Dundalk Community Garden, after months of hard work by the committee to turn a large field, a large part of which was covered in vegetation, to allotments.

The site which lay dormant for some years, had previously hosted a community garden run by local community worker Lucy Rafferty, until a group of people, including Cllr Kevin Meenan who has been heavily involved in the project, came together through Muirhevnamor Community Council and decided to get it back up and running.

With guidance of Tony Jordan in Louth Leader, as well as the agreement of Dundalk Mens' Shed to lease part of the site for their new premises and become a type of anchor tenant, and funding from the Community Climate Action Fund, work could begin on developing the site into a community garden.

18th March

€663,988 in funding to deliver enhancement and refurbishment works on 11 community centres in Louth was announced in March by Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary.

The funding, under the 2024 Community Centre Investment Fund, was part of a €26.1 million funding package for 369 community centres nationwide.

The successful community centre projects announced were awarded capital grants of up to €100,000 under category 2 of the fund.

News of the funding was welcomed by Louth Fine Gael TD, Paula Butterly, who said that, “community centres play an essential role in bringing our communities together.

“Whether it’s local meetings, celebrations, or classes for children or retired people, our community centres in Louth have always been a central point in every town and village for people to come together.

“Communities across Louth will now be empowered to make the changes they need to their community centres to ensure they are up to a high standard."

25th March

Concerns that housing development in Blackrock has gotten “out of control” over the last number of years, without the appropriate accompanying investment in vital services and infrastructure, including a lack of school places, and playing pitches for sports clubs, is bringing the seaside village to a tipping point, one local councillor claimed in March.

Dundalk South Councillor Robert Nash welcomed the decision by Louth County Council's planning department, not to grant an extension on a 2019 planning application for a proposed new development on the outskirts of Blackrock, which he said would have seen nearly 500 units built, on a site half the size of Cox's Demense.

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“In the midst of a housing crisis, I’m only too well aware of the need for more houses and I am also conscious that the thousands of people trying to purchase a home might disagree with me”, Cllr Nash told the Dundalk Democrat, “but the reality is that Blackrock's infrastructure at present is not fit to cater for its present population, never mind 500 more housing units.”

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The removal of a lifebuoy in Carlingford over the St Patrick's bank holiday weekend was roundly condemned by local politicians and the local authority, with one local councillor calling for “zero tolerance for such actions”.

Louth County Council said in a statement that it was aware of a video circulating on social media that appeared to show a lifebuoy being removed from its stand and thrown into Carlingford Lough over the bank holiday weekend, and that the Gardai had identified the individuals involved and were investigating the matter.