Ireland: Tralee to Get New Mosque and Community Centre by 2025
The project, which started in February 2023, is expected to be completed by early 2025.
The two-storey mosque, also known as Masjid, will have a 23-metre high minaret and an 18-metre high dome. It will be adjacent to a community centre with 10 bedrooms and a balcony area. The 2.25 acre site will also have 80 car park spaces and will be surrounded by trees, Irish Independent reported on Thursday.
The mosque and community centre will provide for the religious, cultural and social needs of Muslims in Tralee and countywide. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), 2,151 people in Kerry stated their religion as Islam in 2022.
The project is led by the Kerry Islamic Cultural Centre, which submitted a planning application to Kerry County Council in 2015 and received permission subject to certain conditions.
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The construction costs are partly funded by a GoFundMe page that has raised over €30,000 and a fundraising dinner that was held in June 2023 in collaboration with the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI). The dinner, which featured UK Imam Ajmal Masroor as guest speaker, raised €128,000 through donations and pledges.
The idea for a mosque in Tralee dates back to 1988, when University Hospital Kerry (UHK) provided a prayer space for Muslim employees. In 2000, local Muslims rented a premises for prayers that led to a smaller mosque at Killerisk in 2007. In 2016, a site was purchased close to the existing premises where plans were made for the larger mosque and community centre that is currently under construction.
Source: Agencies
