2013 South West Inner City Network (SWICN) Community & Youth Awards

Last Thursday night, the South West Inner City Network (SWICN) hosted its annual community and youth awards. The event was held in the beautifully redecorated St Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street. The award ceremony was conceived with Kevin Street Garda Siochana and funded by the Iris O’Brien Foundation. The award ceremony raison d’etre is to recognise the efforts of young and old in the south west inner city in achievements ranging from music, drama, academia and sport to community development.

So often the news of the state focuses on the negative stories of the inner city regions, these awards are there to demonstrate that while there are problems in the inner city, people work hard to overcome them and work together to deal with social inequalities that are a by product of the current system. The Fountain Resource Group was represented by our own deserving recipients, Alan Finn from our newswire service and Tanya O’Neill from our junior youth service both received an over 18s community award. From our youth projects Nadine Mulligan and Darren O Neill both won well earned personal achievement awards.

The local parish was also represented with Celia Travers earning herself a lifetime achievement award for her work with St James’s Church, and our organisation was also delighted to see the work of Colm Browne and Sharon Kelly recognised with a lifetime achievement award and a community award respectively. Both of whom have worked tirelessly for the area over the years, particularly with our own youth projects and whom we have always considered great assets.

The evening’s entertainment was supplied Courtney Curran, who is from the local area. For such a young age her voice was highly melodious and her range ran quite high, impressing everyone in the audience. There was also an excellent up-and-coming singer/songwriter called Conor Hamilton who performed on the night.

All and all an excellent night for the community, well done for all the recipients and those who worked hard in making this event possible, from the funders to the catering.

The image at the top of this page depicts our own Alan Finn receiving his award. Here are some more photos from the event…

IMAGES: 2013 SWICN Awards – image credit: Eoghan Brunkard/FRG.ie

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