Development will turn a crossroads into a village

THE crossroads of Clarina, with 15 houses, a closed-down post office, two filling stations, equestrian centre and a GAA pitch, will never be the same again.

Locals say it’s for the better. The new €100 million Clarina Village, now under construction, will include more than 300 houses, a 20,000sq ft shopping centre, an hotel, community centre, crèche and a village green. The dead will even be catered for. Clarina village will have its own funeral home.

Clarina Construction Ltd is headed by Cork-born developer Tim Walsh.

The new Clarina, he says, has been born out of his anger at seeing his own home village die years ago.

“That was in the 1960s and 70s. Our village of Killumney was decimated. I left and the family business, which was there for five generations, closed. But I always felt village life was best. We are going to prove in Clarina that the village is the way forward,” he said.

Richard Kennedy, chairman of the newly-formed Clarina Community Council, says the plusses of the new village, six miles from Limerick on the Askeaton road, far outnumber the minuses.

“We set up the community council recently to ensure that all the amenities which are necessary with a development of this scale are put in place,” he said.

The huge increase in population will pose particular challenges for the local school, he added, and the development will have to have an input into expanding school accommodation.

But he said the availability of houses will enable local people to buy a home and remain on in Clarina.

As Clarina is in the Limerick suburban pressure zone, Limerick County Council have stringent conditions on one-off housing.

“New housing should help young people stay in the area with the opportunity now to buy a house,” said Mr Kennedy.

The new hotel, he said was another welcome aspect of the development as it would give employment locally.

Mr Kennedy said a main objective of the new community council was to ensure that the newcomers to the village are made to feel welcome and encouraged to get involved in local organisations.

Of the 307 houses under construction, 140 will be clustered into a retirement village-within-a-village.

It is expected that the new village will be completed in about four years.

Already, people have moved into the first phase houses, of which 54 have been sold.