‘For the first time we feel we’re being listened to’: New children’s hospice in Castlebar gets go-ahead

Following long campaign, planning permission granted for Sunflower Children’s Hospice, due to open in 2029

Wed Oct 21 2026 - 18:22 • 3 MIN READ

A children’s hospice may conjure up sad images but confirmation that the first such facility is to be built outside Dublin is being celebrated as a “beacon of hope”.

Planning permission was granted this week for Sunflower Children’s Hospice, due to open in Castlebar, Co Mayo in 2029.

“When we got the news, we were incredibly emotional. It’s like a weight has been lifted off of us, that this is finally becoming a reality,” said Linda Cox, from Lisacul, Co Roscommon, whose son Daire (12) needs round-the-clock care.

She and her husband, Brendan, have two other sons, Aaron (17), and Cathal (15).

Daire, who is non-verbal, starting having seizures when he was just two months old. His mother described him as a very happy boy who “adores” his older brothers but she explains that the six-hour round trip to Co Dublin places a big strain on her family.

“Daire is not a great traveller and he finds the journey to Dublin extremely difficult. It can take him that day and the next day to recover.

“This news has brought a huge sense of relief to us. It’s not even the miles on the road, it’s time and time is precious. It give us more time with him, and gives his brothers more time with him.”

Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation is behind the construction of Sunflower Children’s Hospice. The plans were unveiled in November 2025 and €9 million has been raised through community and corporate fundraising, donor support and local initiatives. The final cost of the development is €20 million.

Parents were consulted on the new hospice plans, and Linda Cox is full of praise for Mayo Roscommon Hospice chief executive Martina Jennings and her colleagues.

“For the first time we feel like we’re being listened to ... we feel less alone.”

She says the option to stay with Daire, which will also be available to his siblings, is “such a relief”.

“If we want to come home we can – we’re only 45 minutes away from Castlebar. If they need us, or Daire needs us, when we drop him up to Laura Lynn [Dublin children’s hospice], we’re three hours away.”

Cox says: “When people think of a hospice they think of end of life ... but it’s more than that – it’s the care and support you receive there.”

Jennings says she promised a woman who lost her son at the age of nine that she “wouldn’t forget the children” when the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation was started.

“They lived in Ballina and they used the hospice in Dublin, but they had two other children. While the hospice was great, it was a six-hour round trip. By the time they got there, they were exhausted.

“I made a promise to her that I wouldn’t forget.”

Jennings hopes Sunflower Children’s Hospice will be a “beacon of hope” for families with sick children in the West of Ireland.

It is the first new facility of its kind to be developed in 15 years.

She says siblings will also be at the centre of what the facility hopes to achieve.

“When people say to me about a children’s hospice, ‘that’s so sad,’ I think the sad thing is that we don’t have one yet in the west of Ireland,” she says.

“It gives families time, memories and it creates moments of joy for them.

“When we did the research, one thing that stood out was siblings really suffer too. In this building children will get all the therapies they need, while the families are also minded.”

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