The ambitious plans for the Mary Robinson Centre at her childhood home in Ballina looks to have hit another roadblock this week. On Monday, the Victoria House Foundation issued a statement, confirming that the former president would be gifting her archive to NUIG rather than to Mayo County Council which according to the foundation “Storage of the archive in Galway will obviate the need to duplicate expensive archival facilities in Ballina.”
It was initially planned that her archive would be gifted to Mayo County Council with the archive homed in Ballina as part of the planned Mary Robinson Centre at her family home at Victoria House in Ballina.
In a statement from the Victoria House Foundation they said that “Developing the centre around Mary’s childhood home remains the preferred option of the Victoria House Foundation and other options will also be explored as part of the current review of the project, to be concluded in Q1 2017” and “The Board and its project partners Mayo County Council and NUI Galway reiterated their commitment to the vision to use Mary Robinson’s legacy at a location in Ballina
The board also said that, at their meeting Mary Robinson said that she was not going to avail of any tax credit that may be available to her for her donation of her archive.
Mr Peter Hynes, Chief Executive of Mayo County Council, said he looked forward to a phased development of the centre with NUI Galway. “This renewed commitment by the Foundation and its partners will bring tremendous benefits to Ballina, to Mayo and to the West. I look forward to Mayo County Council providing a leadership role in developing this extremely important project into the future.”
