Deaf Village Ireland (DVI), an all-inclusive state-of-the-art community facility officially opened its doors on Ratoath Road, Cabra on Monday. DVI aims to facilitate and support members of the Deaf community nationally to encourage inclusivity and the local community and communication between the two groups. This is aided by the bi-lingual approach taken, whereby Irish Sign Language (ISL) and spoken English are the two primary languages present and both are used constantly. At 11.30, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr Leo Varadkar officiated the opening by cutting the ceremonial ribbon and releasing doves alongside manager Sylvia Nolan.
The introduction of this facility to the community so far has, and will continue to have a huge impact by providing sporting, social, religious, heritage, educational, community and cultural services and amenities for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and hearing people alike. Services are available for Deaf and Hard of Hearing youths and senior members.
The Launch itself lasted from 10am until 10pm with multiple events taking place. The morning saw a water-polo exhibition between Deaf school boys & senior take place in the Inspire Fitness Centre within the premises. Following Minister Varadkar’s opening, there where speeches by a number of people, including Manager Sylvia Nolan, Caroline McGrotty of the Vice Chairperson of DVI, Kevin Lynch, Chairperson of the Sportco before Fr. Gerard, Chaplain for NCDP gave a blessing of the official opening.
The afternoon saw presentations from a few of the Deaf organisations at the Cabragh hall, such as DSI, IDYA, Deafhear, DDA, SLIS, the Deaf Heritage Centre and Deaf Drama. This was followed by a 6-a-side football match on the DVI all-weather pitches, between local club the Bohemians and a team consisting of Deaf players. The Bohemians players wore ear plugs in order to experience what it is like to play sports Deaf. Both lunch and dinner were served to guests, as well as light refreshments throughout the day and at 8pm DVI hosted a Ceili that pulled in a large crowd, both Deaf and hearing.
For more information contact:
Lorelei Fox-Roberts
Communications and Fundraising Assistant,
Deaf Sports Ireland
communication@deafsportsireland.com (Email)
087 7900800 (Tel)