Artist renderings of the Corleck Building on Eireann Quay and Dr. George Robert Grasett Park.Handout
A project to turn a disused building next to the towering Canada Malting Company silos on Toronto’s waterfront into an Irish cultural centre is getting a $6.5-million boost, including an additional $2-million from the government of Ireland.
Michael Martin, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence and the country’s Tanaiste, or deputy prime minister, announced the new cash for the project at an event at the site on Saturday, the day before St. Patrick’s Day. The money comes on top of a previous $1-million from Ireland, one of several recent investments around the world aimed at spreading the republic’s cultural reach.
The Canadian government also announced a new grant of up to $4.5-million for the project, under a program designed to fund green and inclusive community buildings, which it says will allow the project to install new insulation, a ventilation system and a heat pump to reduce its energy use. The City of Toronto, which is leasing the building to Canada Ireland foundation, has also provided $4.8-million for its renovation.
Dubbed the Corleck, after a 2,000-year-old, three-faced ancient Celtic carved stone head found by an Irish farmer in 1855, the project has been spearheaded by the Canada Ireland Foundation, which has also raised $7-million from private donors for its construction. The project had previously been set to open in 2022 and is now scheduled for completion in 2025.
James Maloney, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, and Eileen Costello, Head of the Corleck Committee, during the announcement at the construction site of the Corleck.Canada Ireland Foundation
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James Maloney (left), Micheal Martin (centre), and Robert G. Kearns on the south side of the Corleck and renovated Canada Malting silos.Canada Ireland Foundation
In an interview, Robert Kearns, the chair and founder of Canada Ireland Foundation, said the aging structure needed reinforcement on its eastern side, as it sits on the filled-in land that makes up much of Toronto’s shoreline.
Mr. Kearns said the centre would host plays, poetry readings, dance and art installations, and would link Ireland and Toronto’s history as a landing place for Irish immigrants to the many other cultures, including Indigenous cultures, that now call the city home.
“We didn’t want it to be Irish or Ireland in the name because we wanted it to be a welcoming place for all migrants, for all citizens of the city,” he said.
The project, retrofitting the former offices of the malting company, is the latest in the city aimed at highlighting Toronto’s Irish heritage, and is located on the renamed Eireann Quay at the foot of Bathurst Street, where Ireland Park was established in 2007 as a memorial to the 38,500 Irish migrants who fled to the city during the Potato Famine. In 2017, a small parkette north of the site was named in honour of George Robert Grasett, the Protestant doctor who dedicated himself to treating the mainly Catholic Irish immigrants who arrived here suffering from typhus.
The Corleck is part of a push by the government of Ireland that it says is meant to “double the scope and impact” of the republic’s “global footprint,” a strategy it calls Global Ireland 2025. The plan has also seen it fund arts centres in New York, Paris and London.
Jeff Gray