Ballinrobe Public Library 3

This is the story that Mary, our local librarian in Ballinrobe, told us how the library moved in to the converted church. 

The library moved into their current location about 17 years ago, all because of a library patron named Dorothy, who had a dog friend named Coco.

Dorothy was "Church of Ireland" member and she was increasingly disturbed by the sorry state of the unused church. She was also a book lover and frequent visitor to the library. One day she approached Mary and asked if the county council might be able to use the old church building as a library. Mary said to talk to the council about it. Dorothy did and in the end, Church of Ireland leased it to the Mayo County Council for 1 cent.

It needed some restoration work, not least on the stained glass window, which was sent to Dublin piece by piece and cleaned at a cost of 70,000 pounds (this was just before the euro, I guess).

Dorothy, the woman that set the move in motion, continued to use the library a lot. She always came in with Coco and Coco was the only dog allowed in the library. Once, when Mary was away on holiday, her sub told Dorothy that the dog was not allowed in the library and Coco had to be tied up outside. Dorothy was not happy and I'm guessing that Coco wasn't, either! When Mary returned, she said, "Don't ever do that again! Do you know whose dog that is?" Coco was never banished again!

When it became difficult for Dorothy to get into town, Mary would pick her up on her lunch hour and bring Dorothy to town to do her shopping and pick up her library books. When Dorothy was unable to get to the library, Mary brought her books to her. Dorothy was found passed away in her bed with an open library book in her hand and Coco at the end of her bed. Coco died two days later.

This story was first published by Shari, my wife, back in 2014.

Shari blogging at the library

The previous library before the church was converted.  As you can see, it was very small.