Kilmovee Swimming Pool Fundraiser

Our story so far. . . .

Back in the late seventies, the community of Kilmovee came together to achieve something AMAZING and 46 years on, we’re asking for your help to do it all over again.

In 1977, an idea among neighbours was born and without any funding or grants, Kilmovee Swimming Pool was built by the local people in Kilmovee. According to records, once the land was acquired, local people and tradesmen of Kilmovee dedicated at least one day unpaid to the building of the pool. When it was built first, it had no roof for a year or two but this was just another obstacle that was simply tackled and overcome by the community of Kilmovee.

Many, many improvements have taken place over the years since then for example the major achievement of heating the pool in the early 2000’s along with re-tiling, new dressing rooms and multi-purpose rooms for lifeguards, training, baby-changing and a reception area.

We are extremely grateful to have received some funding over the years from Mayo County Council, the National Lottery and Active Ireland however, while this assists in the running of the pool, it is not adequate to cover the pool expenses each year. We find it very difficult to secure more substantial funding and support from government-led agencies as we only open for the Summer months and just can't compete with other applicants.

Up to now, the swimming pool volunteer committee and, where required, local tradesmen and professionals have kept the pool open up to now and many, many more locals have dedicated their time to this committee and the running of the pool over the years, for which we are all very thankful.

Every year the committee do as much basic maintenance and upgrading as they can themselves but it’s limited! Along with the costs of the basic maintenance and upkeep, there is some structural work needed that requires expert attention and purchasing of materials.

While the pool experiences high volumes of children from near and far visiting the pool, it has always kept the ethos of a 'community' spirit and has been very accessible to everyone, so access to the pool is not as expensive as other pools. Children of all ages and stages have one thing in common in the locality and that's their use of the pool in the Summertime, thus providing a healthy activity for them, and feeding the hunger for sport in the community.

Since 1977, the pool has been continuously investing in future generations and have offered Water Safety Training and Swimming Lessons every single year. A lot of these students go on to become pool assistants and lifeguards and actually work in the pool in their teenage years. Other local students have had great success at swimming compeitions too. We are always looking for ways to support young people in the area and this year, for the first time, an Assistant Swimming Teacher Course was offered and very quickly was fully subscribed and is being run over the Summer.

While we recognise that the pool is already a huge asset to the community here in Kilmovee, we are hoping to raise some funds to carry out essential maintenance works and much needed refurbishments at the pool to make it an even better offering than it is now. That’s where we’re looking for your help please. Most of us will have learned to swim in Kilmovee pool and have great memories of swimming there, and even more memories of the journey there and back, maybe stopping in to Grennan's, Killoran's or Rushe's shop on the way home. Many of us swim in the pool in our adult lives or we bring our children there to learn how to swim so it's incredibly valuable to us all.

Kilmovee Swimming Pool will celebrate it's 50th birthday in 2027 so we are hoping that our planned fundraising initiatives will help us to have some of the refurbishment and improvement works done before then. We do appreciate the times we’re in at the moment are challenging so any and all donations are very much appreciated. We would like to extend our sincere thanks again to everyone for all your support and we look forward to seeing you at the pool over the Summer.