Knockanevin School has hailed the return of their status as a polling station just a week after TO Park lodged a protest at having lost the station in Labbamologga.
As reported in last week’s edition of The Avondhu, Tom O’Flynn (T O) had lashed out at officials who took away the centre at Labbamologga.
TO told The Avondhu that he has written to the returning officer to complain and said that his community are 'at a terrible loss'.
“It is not a nice thing to happen to our community and we want to push out the boundaries and include the people. We are dismayed by this move,” he said, adding that it has upset his community who are regulars at the centre.
Meanwhile, Knockanevin School said they were delighted to welcome back the polling station to their facility.
Tom Downey said that since the foundation of the State, voting was held consistently in both schools in Knockanevin until 2015. In that interim period, the community of Knockanevin came together and in two major projects, worked to renovate the church grounds and also the grounds of the school.
During the work done on the school, an accessibility ramp was installed to ensure wheelchair access to the building.
Mr Downey added that Knockanevin School held its first major event in January 2018, when a full house enjoyed a night of music, dance and refreshments.
Further large fundraisers for local charities followed in 2019 with more planned for the coming year. The hall has also been in constant use with local community events and meetings.
“We are looking forward to welcoming back our voters so they can see the work that the local community has put into ensuring that Knockanevin School is a thriving hub of activity once again,” Mr Downey, an active member of the working group said.
“Historically, Knockanevin has one of the highest voter turnouts in the constituency and now that the voting has returned home to Knockanevin, hopefully the same will apply again next Saturday.”
