When was the Sunshine House Built?
Out and about this morning a couple of local lads asked me if I knew when the Sunshine House was built. I did not know, but remembered I had seen some photos and info in the archives of the old Balbriggan.net which I have shared below.
I looked up its history and found out it's been on the go over 80 years and celebrated its 85th year in 2020. In 1935, the Sunshine Fund’s first fundraising campaign began with the launch of the “Advocate” newspaper and its associated church gate collections. It raised £300, which was enough to begin the purchase and renovation of the 18th-century home, Rochfort House, in Balbriggan, North Co. Dublin. This was renamed Sunshine House, a name soon to become familiar to generations of Dublin’s children. Find out more at their website link below.
I found these two stories in the Balbriggan.net archives also:
Sunshine House, Balbriggan. Opening New Playrooms.
Today 14th July 2004 The President, Mrs McAleese, officially opened a new playrooms area at Sunshine House. Despite an unfavourable weather forecast the Sunshine did win out and all attendees had a wonderful few hours celebrating the opening of this most needed extension to the facilities at Sunshine House. The President obviously enjoyed the opportunity to address her (mostly) young audience and she spoke with great warmth and affection for the work carried out by the organisers of the week long breaks. She spoke about the wonderful support received from the ESB and how the partnership worked between the voluntary and corporate groups to the advantage of all the 120,000 or so children who have been on holiday in Sunshine House during the past 70 years.
An ‘all inclusive’ society where want and hardship is unknown to our children would be her wish and we still have some work to do to achieve this. She spent some time after the official opening meeting the children and made many admirers for the seamless manner with which she addressed both children and adults alike, and indeed made all ‘inclusive’ in the events of the day. Balbriggan.net were delighted to be invited to the official opening and to the refreshments served, to the usual high standard, afterwards at the nearby Bracken Court Hotel. Balbriggan.net also adds the request for supporters to remember to add a few Euros to The Sunshine Fund when the Advocate paper is on sale. All the funds go towards bringing children for a one week holiday each year to Sunshine House, Balbriggan. These children are all from families who have fallen on hard times so otherwise could never provide their children with a holiday. 14.07.04
And this story about a bomb scare in 2004
Bomb Scare at Sunshine House.
Several weeks back there was a bomb scare at Sunshine House where a device was found and was "ticking". As you will see, the Army Bomb Disposal team arrived to make the device safe. From what we know there was no explosives but it was an elaborate hoax. The whole saga lasted about 5 hours with many of the houses on Church Street evacuated. We got some photos and we bring you 2. 05.09.04
Finally a gallery of photos marked Sunshine House memories
