FROM HOSTEL TO HOLIDAY CAMP

FROM HOSTEL TO HOLIDAY CAMP

The article below on Ballydermot Hostel (near Rathangan) appeared in The Leinster Leader on 28th April 1962. This was the last of the Bord na Móna hostels to close in Ireland. 

The last link with the great turf “drive” of the Emergency years, when Bord na Móna recruited workers from all over Ireland to save the country from a fuel famine, has been severed by the disposal of Ballydermot Hostel, Rathangan. The hostel has been leased for five years to the St. John Bosco Society, Dublin. It is to be converted into a holiday camp for boys who belong to various boys clubs in Dublin.

Arrangements for the take-over were concluded some weeks ago between Bord na Móna officials and officers of the St John Bosco Society – an organisation under the patronage of His Lordship Most Rev. Dr. McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin. Ballydermot Hostel became the property of the hostel on April 1st. It closed down officially on September 30th, after accommodation had been found locally for about sixty permanent workers who had lived in the hostel for a number of years. They were the last of over 200 men who had occupied the hostel from year to year, since it was first opened in 1942, and who played their part in providing the nation’s fuel during the Emergency. Ballydermot was one of the first of fourteen similar hostels to be erected by Bord na Móna at the time, and when it closed it was the last one in Ireland. With it, the Board also closed a very important chapter in its history.

For in those turbulent times there were many who believed that the experiment of housing hundreds of Irishmen together was doomed to failure. Others thought that turf would never make a suitable fuel for domestic or industrial use, and some unscrupulous and greedy dealers almost proved them right by selling wet turf at great profit to themselves. But after twenty years of continued progress and expansion Bord na Mona has triumphantly vindicated its policy of bog development. To-day, they have an annual output of more than a million tons of turf, and their bogs also provide power and fuel for power stations, briquette factories and industries. Who can deny that their hostels, and the men who lived in them, did not make a substantial contribution to the building of this great national industry?

When Ballydermot Hostel takes on its new role as a holiday camp for boys, one man will play an important part in its operation. His is Mr. Paddy McGoldrick, former hostel supervisor, who joined Bord na Mona in Droichead Nua twenty years ago and was Ballydermot’s efficient supervisor for 13 years. Paddy, native of Sligo, has been appoint resident manager of the camp. He looks forward with pleasure to his new duties. “Looking after boys instead of men will be a pleasant change,” he told our reporter on Tuesday. He added with a twinkle that he had some experience…. “I have seven children, mostly boys, and I was ScoutMaster to a troop of Boy Scouts in Sligo.” The first group of 100 boys will be accommodated in the twenty heated and spotless buildings at Ballydermot. These are set amid lawns and flower beds and should present a very pleasant picture indeed for boys reared in the city. In addition, the visitors will enjoy games, walks and tours of the bogs and industrial centres. Indoor amusements will include table tennis and badminton in the large recreation hall of the hostel. Each group of boys will have its own chaplain and club leader. The latter will supervise all activities. It is understood that there will be an official opening of the holiday camp in July.