Books are alive: magic is afoot in Woodford

The blue and light blue of the building, the distinctive plaster detail surrounding the windows, and the decorative features of the parapet roof identify the exciting new Credit Union premises in Woodford, which also incorporates a library.

The official opening of this new Credit Union project in Woodford took place on Saturday July 26th, when Councillor Peter Feeney, Mayor of the County of Galway along with Máire Doyle, Vice-President of the Naomh Breandán Credit Union jointly cut the tape in the presence of Martin Smith, Treasurer, and other members of the Loughrea Credit Union Board.
The decision of the Loughrea Credit Union to share its new Woodford building with the library service is a fine example of Credit Union operating principles in action, principles which are based on "the concept of human development, expressed through people working together to achieve a better life for themselves and their children."

On a recent April Tuesday evening the artist Astrid Hofmann demonstrated the many possibilities of the venture when her exhibition of felt and silk pieces introduced some further blues and lilac colours inside the refurbished building. Her dominant and vibrant reds caught by the evening light shining through the front windows suggested that magic was afoot in Woodford. Her two small sculptures entitled Einstein’s curl old and Einstein’s curl young sitting on top of book shelves seemed made for any library, while her Orbital Mongolia, a piece made from a yew tree, encompassed the knowledge and vision of a library.

To further inaugurate the service, a set of beautifully bound hardcover books with decorative endpapers and silk ribbon markers were added to stock. This selection of 100 books is intended to provide in Woodford an enduring hardcover library of classic and contemporary works from literature to history to philosophy. This initiative forms part of a programme to place a strong, but unchanging, collection in Woodford branch library and promote its use with readings, talks, and discussions.
At the official opening, The Fake McCoys, a group of musicians from east Clare, brought another dimension to the project, when for two hours in the freshly planted courtyard of the Credit Union/Library they played a wonderful combination of Irish and bluegrass music.