A Year After the Storm: Supporting Corlough to Be Ready for the Future

A year and 2 days ago the largest storm of our time struck Ireland. Our communities rallied, neighbors came out to look on one another as the winds died down. In a small beautiful area of West Cavan this aftermath lasted longer than in almost all areas of Ireland. Corlough Development Association were 23 days without electricity and all that that entailed.

A year later, we haven’t forgotten. And so, CavanPPN arrived in Corlough last week to deliver emergency support boxes for homes in Corlough for any future emergency impacting their area.

This pilot was as a result of Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht ‘s sponsored PPN conference in mid-2025 on emergency supports and resilience and how we PPNs can support our communities directly. Our project was to choose Corlough community as a pilot and to provide the list of materials we sourced in each box so other communities could replicate this emergency support box initiative through their own future funding applications.

We hope the people of Corlough never need these but, should they, we hope they provide support and solace to them during times of stress and strain.

Many thanks to Cavan County Council for their support, to Cavan County Local Development for theirs. A great appreciation is owed to Corlough’s amazing people, especially Agnes who was there to help welcome us.

To CavanPPN secretariat for having reallocated their project funds to support such a worthwhile project and the staff for having worked so hard to source and design the materials and box and deliver them.

Thanks to the local representatives who attended the night and the lovely tea that flowed in the beautiful hall afterwards from Corlough’s amazing volunteers.

We will be publishing a report to all community groups in the coming weeks so, should they too want to follow suit, their communities will likewise have support boxes for homes on need in your local area. In this way, all our communities can be better supported through times of great need.

For more information, or to get in touch, visit https://www.cavanppn.ie/