An old courthouse building in Co Fermanagh which has been repurposed into a cafe is proving to be a popular meeting place for those in the local community.
The Courthouse in the village of Kesh is run by the Share Ardess organisation, and started off as a community initiative with a food bank before growing into a cafe and community hub, with health and wellbeing classes, counselling sessions and other activities.
Manager of the courthouse, Alan Crawford, said the local church had taken over the building 25 years ago but it had fallen into disrepair before being taken on by local volunteers.
“The cafe is called The Courthouse and it’s called that because it’s on the site of a courthouse that was in Kesh,” Alan told MyFermanagh.
“It has been there since 1908, and the church took over the building around 25 years ago.
“It wasn’t in great shape but we used it for the odd coffee morning or book sale.
“Then more recently it got more dilapidated and we had the plan in our mind to build something better.
“The charity we have within the church is called ‘Share Ardess’, so we could share out things in the community.
“Ten years ago a group of people got together and started a food bank, a befriending service, counselling and a few other things like that.
“When we built this place the cafe was always going to be the heart of it because we knew people like to call in for a coffee and a chat.”
“One of things we wanted as well was to make it a welcoming place, where even if you were going to the food bank it appeared to others as if you were just going to the cafe.
“At the moment we have the cafe at the front and the food bank at the back, which we are extending to make it a hub for a few other smaller food banks."
The group has won awards recently for their contribution to the local community in Kesh, including a Community Spirit at the Housing Executive’s Rural Community Awards in 2020.
Alan himself scooped the Rural Community Champion Award 2020 at the event.
He added that The Courthouse is known to be a great meeting place for people from the local community.
Alan continued: “We have one lady living by herself, she comes into volunteer and be with the rest of the staff a couple of days a week.
“We have another person who comes in every morning for her breakfast, then sits for an hour and gets a wee takeaway lunch as well.
“She comes in and sits for a couple of hours talking to the staff, so that’s somewhere for her to come and in and have a chat.
“We encourage people to sit in as long as they want, some people come in for hours just to pass the time.”
