€300,000 has been secured from the Heritage Council’s Historic Towns Initiative to continue conservation works at The Laurels, Glenties, the homeplace of playwright Brian Friel’s mother.
Additional funding of €75,000 has been provided by Donegal County Council as well as funding from the Brian Friel Trust.
Brian Friel’s play Dancing at Lughnasa is dedicated to his mother, Christina McLoone, and his aunts who grew up in The Laurels.
The last of the sisters died in the late 1950s, after which the house was bought by a local family. It was then purchased in January 2016 by the Brian Friel Trust, which has been taking a phased approach to its conservation and the establishment of the Brian Friel Centre in Glenties Courthouse.
The funding secured from the Historic Towns Initiative will go towards conservation works to the interior of the late-nineteenth-century building, service provision at the site, and the implementation of a landscape management plan. The works will bring The Laurels back into use as an artist’s/caretaker’s residence and will provide a small outdoor performance area for Brian Friel’s works.
The works are expected to be completed by early October.
