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AVH News

Repair Works to the Hall in 2024

You will have seen scaffolding and ‘men at work’ all over the hall during the month of May. This was to carry out some major repairs to the hall, mainly to the rear, clean out guttering to the Main Hall & Paul Green Hall and remove moss from Paul Green Hall roof.

One of the last remaining Carnegie halls in Ireland

Schedule of repair works 2024

You will have seen scaffolding and ‘men at work’ all over the hall during the month of May. This was to carry out some major repairs to the hall, mainly to the rear.

We had to:-

Clean out guttering to Main Hall & Paul Green Hall and remove moss from Paul Green Hall roof.

Carry out repairs and repainting to fascia & soffits, including the original high fascias, front and back. Replace the back door with an outward opening Fire Rated Door incl. required Push Pad and form a concrete ramp to provide wheelchair exit to rear of the building. Some works still to be carried out include:

Remedial work to the front main doors and the same to the alleyway doors.

Remedial and improvement plumbing works

Obtain prices for interior painting –

woodwork all rooms, walls in small hall, for repainting all exterior doors and obtain price for repair of alleyway surface. We have saved up as much as possible over the past couple of years to have the funds to enable this work to be carried out and may need more funds to complete so we thank you all for coming to all our fundraising events over 2024 to help us achieve this.

Work was completed by South West Antrim Construction Ltd.

2024 Events and programme

June

29th Crafter’s Destash Sale event with Nifty Needles. 11.00am – 3.00pm – Free entry For tables contact – nancy@niftyneedles.com

September

20th to 22nd – Art Exhibition –SRC Art Group – Free entry

21st – Afternoon Tea Event – FUNDRAISERTickets will be advertised in the usual way £13 per person.

October

5th – Rock & Pop Night – FUNDRAISER –Tickets will be advertised in the usual

way £10 per person. Bring your own refreshments. Ballot with fabulous prizes donated by the local community.

November 2nd – Craft Fair with Trish Rogers – Free entry. To book tables contact – trish@ trishrogersoriginals.com

December 6th – Christmas lighting up event FUNDRAISER – Free entry – Time to be arranged. 7th – 8th - Santa visits at the hall –Free entry – details still to be finalised

2024 Activities Programme

In the first 3 months of 2024 we carried out the workshops and courses displaced by the filming at the hall during the end of 2023, and from April to the end of May we completed the programme for the year.

The stats for the 2023/24 programme

We held 116 workshops and 8 courses. There were 1,300+ places available and more than 300 individuals booked places. The programme was funded by: Telecommunity, Halifax Foundation NI, The Honourable The Irish Society, John Moores Foundation NI, Arnold Clark, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Garfield Weston and Awards for All. We thank all of them sincerely, without their help we just would not have been able to provide such a wonderful programme.

More than 50 years of shuttlecocks!

Ballinderry Badminton League celebrated its 50th Anniversary at the Edenmore Golf and Country Club on Friday the 26th April 2019.

1969 was the year that:-

President Nixon became president of the USA; Concorde made its maiden flight; Man first walked on the moon AND with one giant leap across the badminton court, the Ballinderry Badminton League was formed.

The League was founded to formalise friendly matches between the five maiden clubs:- 1st Lisburn, Aghalee, Ballinderry, Hillhall and Dundrod. The League’s Motto was ‘Competitive but Friendly’ – Play your heart out for three games considering your opponents the enemy, then shake hands and all sit down and have a big supper of fresh sandwiches and home-made cakes –A competition in its own right! From these humble beginnings, the Ballinderry League grew and grew and during the 80’s and 90’s it supported over 50 clubs playing competitive badminton right across the country in up to eight different Leagues.

Part of that original league, Ballinderry Badminton Club continues to play weekly every Monday evening during the winter months from Aghalee Village Hall. A number of new gents joined the club this year so the men’s future looks reasonably bright. Women players however are in short supply! Currently we are a senior club only but are hoping to get a junior club running again soon.

For any badminton players interested in friendly, competitive fun, please come along to the Village Hall on Monday evenings, restarting now on 2nd September, when Ballinderry Badminton Club will commence the battle to win some of the coveted prizes on offer once more!

Contacts: Derek 07791267636 or Bobbie 07919123027.

Jeanne Cree School of Ballet

The school had a very successful year at Easter the pupils took their ABD exams from pre preparatory to Grade 8 all passing with a merit or Distinction mark.

Lauren and Darcy were invited to take part in scholarship day in Birmingham where Darcy placed 4th and Lauren gained an honours certificate. In May Eva took part in her schools talent competition and was awarded 1st place with her character solo while Erin has been given a scholarship to attend the Hammond ballet school in Chester over the summer. To finish the year the school danced at our annual McMillan coffee morning and raised over £200 We look forward to a successful 2024.

Lauren, Darcy and Brooke passed Grade 7 and Eireann passed Grade 8. Lauren and Eireann both gained Platinum certificates gaining over 90 marks.

Picture: Lauren and Darcy in front and Eireann and Brooke standing.

Strategic plans for the future of the hall

We continue to work with a consultant to make plans for the future of the village hall, beyond the current committee.

We have completed a community survey and a skills audit of the committee and will be working out a business plan for the next number of years along with carrying out some elements of planning before hopefully making application for funding to support a part time hall manager to help run the activities at the hall.

Christmas Event 2023

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the Christmas event on Thursday 7th December and who helped out at the Santa visits.

The Thursday night event went very well with the community being thoroughly entertained by our three local partner school choirs. Thanks to Ruth Macauley and her band of volunteers for providing the refreshments, which went down a storm. The Santa bookings on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th also went very well with £357.81 being donated, an increase on 2022 of £96.46. Between choir children and Santa visits we gave out 174 selection boxes and saw more than 55 families. There were 40 boxes left and these were donated to Food bank Moira.

AGM

On Wednesday 15th May we held our AGM. We made our Annual report and presented our Annual accounts for year ending 31st December 2023. These have now been lodged with Charity Commission NI as required.

Those elected to serve for 2024 are as follows:

Book Club Fiona Ryan Maree & Kerry Quinn

Aghalee Taekwondo Susan McCavigan & Michael Beacham

Ballinderry Badminton Derek Blakely & Club Bobbie Hamill

Aghalee Upholstery Anne Miskelly & Group Alison Gawith

Needlecraft Club Pat McAdams

Art Club John Harris

Ballet & AgeNI Pauline Buller

Public

Matt Hull

Representatives Chris Buller

Andrea Huff

Stephen Bann

Fernando Gutierrez Ian Christie

Exercise Classes

In March we welcomed Ciara Mulholland, a local lady who runs exercise classes. The taster class proved to be very popular and she is now in the hall every Wednesday evening between 7pm and 8pm, helping local people exercise to music. We hope the classes will continue to be a regular feature at the hall.

Lottery Award - People and Communities

In May, we heard we had been awarded a total of £46,822 over 2 years for a continuation of the Activities Programme.

This is wonderful news and we are deeply indebted to the Lottery for this wonderful award to continue to host the programme in 2025 and 2026. Now the hard work of finding tutors and new

activities along with the timetabling starts! Watch the usual noticeboards, webpages and social media posts to see what’s happening and when to apply for places.

New activities

Two new activities started at the hall. Both are activities requested on the community survey.

The first is an adult Yoga class was started by Lynn McGarry, and meets on a Wednesday 10am – 12noon. If successful, there may be other classes at different times during the autumn and winter months.

The second is a Children’s Yoga class being trialled in June by Beech Brae Wellbeing. If this is well attended and successful,

it may continue during the autumn and winter months.

We encourage you all to use these new services as much as possible, so that they may continue at the hall.

Aurora Spectacular 11th May

We were treated to an amazing light show over Northern Ireland on the night of Friday 11th May.

Not usually seen over NI the lights were visible after one of strongest geomagnetic storms in more than 20 years hit the earth. The most active conditions tend to occur at the maximum of and 11 year solar cycle, and it was expected to be possible to see the lights for a few days after this, depending on cloud cover and pollution. The lights appear as bright swirling sheets or curtains of light in the night sky and can range in colour from green through to pink, purple and red.

They are caused by charged particles from the storms in the sun hitting gases in the earth’s atmosphere. The different colours occur due to different gases being energised by the charged particles. The most common gases affected are nitrogen and oxygen. Oxygen glows green and nitrogen varies pink, purple and blue. Oxygen at higher levels glows red. While these can be seen by the naked eye, they aren’t often seen to their full beauty until captured by either camera of phone, which see more than the human eyes. The most impressive auroras occur when the sun emits very large clouds of particles during a solar storm, called ‘coronal mass ejections’.

Photo by Claire Ewing

Photo by Rachel Buller.

The Waterways Community

In conversation with Joe Nelson, TWC (The Waterways Community), Chairman and members of the Aghagallon Committee, a wish was expressed for the committees in Aghalee and Aghagallon to investigate working together on a joint funding bid with TWC to run a wider series of workshops, including photography, tapestry and stitching, walks, including walk leader training and interesting guest speakers from March 2024.

The Waterways Community has been delivering the Storymaking Festival for the past 6 years and will ultimately combine these workshops and the festival in 2024. The Village Hall committee expressed an interest in working together and we wait to see what the future brings with this initiative.

Aghalee Traffic Calming Measures

After initial requests from the community back in 2017 and subsequent public meetings and consultations which the village hall facilitated, the traffic calming measures, funded by Village Renewal Scheme and latterly the Small Settlements Scheme, finally went ahead in spring. The plans had been drawn up by architects employed by local Council and approved by DfI Roads. We had made some suggestions about possible alternative calming measures but these were discarded as impossible by the other parties concerned. These traffic calming measure and the additional tree planting and wide verge management scheme now complete all of the plans started in 2017.

We have been approached by a number of people expressing dissatisfaction with various aspects of the ‘speed cushions’ and those who are seemingly using them incorrectly.

If you have a complaint about the DfI plans approved, please write directly to them to express your feelings. DfI Roads Eastern Division, Traffic Management 3, Annexe 7, Castle Buildings, Stormont Estate, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast, BT4 3SQ

Aghalee Playing Fields

Finally, after a number of years of asking, the Council has submitted plans for a replacement changing facility for the football teams to the Planning Office and these have now been approved. No date yet for the start of work.

Hire Increases

In January we reviewed our charges for the first time since 2015. They are modest increases and they are still good value for money.

We have three rooms to choose from: the main hall for larger groups, private parties and hires; the Paul Green hall suitable for classes and/or workshops; and the Loft for small groups, such as yoga, smaller clubs etc.

To view our facilities and book for a private event or for a group activity, please contact the Booking Secretary –Ruth Macauley on 02892 651037.

Deaths

November 2023

Margaret Robertson – wife of Walter and mother of Andrea, both committee members, and mother of Diane in the surgery. Margaret was a lovely lady, very well known in the village. She had been ill for some time and is sadly missed by all who knew her.

January 2024

Howard Uprichard – husband of the late Anne and beloved father of David, Carla Sue, Barbara and Julie. The family have farmed in the Aghalee area for many years. Howard had been ill for a while and is sadly missed

April 2024

Barbara Green – in Dublin, a sister of the late John Green a former Custodial Trustee, and Patricia Green, whose family were resident in the village for many years.

We extend our sympathies to all the families and to others in the area also recently bereaved.

Obituary –Gwen Johnston

In May we said goodbye to Gwen Johnston who had sadly passed away. The Johnston family has steadfastly supported the work of the Village Hall in so many ways over the years. They lived in Aghalee for more than 37 years, with Gwen being an instrumental member of the Women’s Voluntary Service, serving a lunch to the elderly at the hall for many years, and both Gwen and her husband George sitting on the committee during the 1980s and 90s. They moved to sheltered accommodation in Moira for a number of years and when they became more frail, they moved into a care home in Lisburn, where Gwen’s health deteriorated until her death but where George still resides.

Aghalee Village Hall News - June 2024

The 2024 committee Officers

Chairman: TBA

Vice-Chairman: Matthew Hull

Treasurer: Christopher Buller

Secretary: Pauline Buller

Club Representatives

Aghalee Taekwondo: Susan McCavigan and Michael Beacham

Art ClUB: John Harris

Ballet Class & AgeNI: Pauline Buller

Ballinderry Badminton Club: Derek Blakely and Bobbie Hamill

Book Club: Fiona Maree and Kerry Quinn

Needlework Club: Pat McAdams

Upholstery Class: Alison Gawith and Anne Miskelly

Public Representatives

Matt Hull, Chris Buller, Andrea Huff, Stephen Bann, Fernando Gutierrez & Ian Christie.

Ruth Macauley, Booking Secretary agreed to remain with the Committee to fulfil her specialised post without standing as a Committee member.

Caroline Redpath agreed to remain with the Committee to support and act as Safeguarding Officer without standing as a Committee member.

We would like to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly through the past number of very difficult months to keep the hall working. From the clubs and class tutors and the regular committee of volunteers who have kept things ticking over, funds coming in and the hall viable, always with a view to the future and how we can continue to be the central hub for the local community.

Aghalee Village Hall Clubs and Organisations Contacts 2024

AgeNI

WEDNESDAYS in the Main Hall –

10.00am – 3.00pm (Over 65) –

Contact: Gillian Thompson Manager07733 912 876 Gillian.Thompson@ageni.org

Aghalee Taekwondo Club

TUESDAYS - in the Main Hall – 6.30pm – 8.00pm (Age 7+) THURSDAYS - in the Main Hall – 6.30pm – 8.00pm (Age 7+)

Contact: Michael Beacham – 07548 885 114, or email Michaelb5717478@btinternet.com

AVH Upholstery Classes

Thursday mornings – 9.30am – 12.30pm in the Main Hall. Contact: June Acheson 028 9261 9177

Ballinderry Badminton

Monday evenings 8-late.

Contact: Text or call Bobbie Hamill on 07919 123 027 or Derek Blakely on 07791 267 636.

Book Club

In The Loft – first Tuesday of each month.

Contact: Clare Ward 028 9265 0377

Jeanne Cree Ballet School

THURSDAYS & SATURDAYS in Main Hall - Children accepted from 3 years.

Contact: Jeanne Cree 028 9265 2447

Needlecraft Group - For now not meeting.

Southern Regional College - Hobby Art

In the Paul Green Hall –Mondays 10:15am – 12:15pm.

Contact: Jim Cunningham 07711 981 732 or College on 0300 123 1233.

Southern Regional College - Upholstery Classes

FRIDAYS in the Main Hall. 10.00am to 12.00pm and 12.30pm - 14.30pm. Contact: Jim Cunningham 07711 981 732 or College on 0300 123 1233.

Watch this space, notice-boards, website and Facebook page for details of seasonal short courses and classes.

To find e-copies of this newsletter or to contact Aghalee Village Hall: See our Website at www.aghaleevillagehall.org.uk www.issuu.com/aghaleevillagehall or please email: aghalee.vhall@btinternet.com

Postal Address: 6 Lurgan Road, Aghalee, Craigavon, BT67 0DD.

Secretary Pauline Buller 028 9265 1825