Age Friendly
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and support given by the Chief Executive to<br />
the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> Coordinator in delivering the<br />
programme is often the critical success factor<br />
in the county,” says Mary Deery.<br />
Louth County Council committed €25,000 to the<br />
<strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> Ireland County programme from<br />
2009 to 2013 and seventy-five per cent of Mary<br />
Deery’s working hours to the project. Meanwhile,<br />
Conn Murray set about making contact with<br />
senior managers in the Health Service Executive<br />
and the Gardai to build an <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> Alliance<br />
in County Louth. He already had Rodd Bond and<br />
the president of DKIT ready and willing to be<br />
members of this new alliance.<br />
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland<br />
also became founder members of the <strong>Age</strong><br />
<strong>Friendly</strong> Alliance in County Louth, such was<br />
their involvement in developing the energy<br />
dimension of the Great Northern Haven<br />
housing project. The former County Louth<br />
president of the Irish Farmers Association, a<br />
member of the Irish Council for Social Housing<br />
and three members (representatives from<br />
<strong>Age</strong> Action Ireland, the nursing homes sector<br />
and Meals on Wheels) from the fledging Older<br />
People’s Forum also joined the Alliance. A<br />
member of the <strong>Age</strong>ing Well Network [now <strong>Age</strong><br />
<strong>Friendly</strong> Ireland] also joined the Alliance. Conn<br />
Murray even invited Cardinal Sean Brady into<br />
his office to discuss the programme which<br />
resulted in an openness from parish priests to<br />
have details of <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> events published<br />
in parish newsletters throughout the county.<br />
“Conn Murray did a lot of this kind of rallying<br />
of the troops for <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> beyond the<br />
membership of the Alliance,” says Deery.<br />
In 2012, representatives from the Louth<br />
Leader Partnership and the Vocational<br />
Educational Committee [now the Education<br />
& Training Board] joined the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong><br />
Alliance in County Louth.<br />
The Louth <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> County programme<br />
was officially constituted at a meeting of the<br />
County Development Board [now the Local<br />
Community Development Committees] before<br />
the public launch in November 2008.<br />
“Louth already had an integrated economic<br />
plan for the county which meant that <strong>Age</strong><br />
<strong>Friendly</strong> could become another pillar alongside<br />
sustainable energy, foreign direct investment,<br />
cultural activities, agricultural and food<br />
production. With this recognition, the age friendly<br />
agenda becomes more central, animating all<br />
the other pillars and become embedded in the<br />
long term economic thinking of the county,<br />
it becomes the positive economics of living<br />
longer” says Rodd Bond. For instance, the Louth<br />
Economic Forum developed an <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong><br />
Business Plan for the county with leadership<br />
from former IDA director, Padraic White and<br />
Rodd Bond. This group then reported back into<br />
the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> Alliance.<br />
Adding an <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> dimension was also<br />
significant in other partnerships. “Jobs, social<br />
deprivation, youth unemployment were the<br />
priorities in County Louth. The Louth Leader<br />
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