Cover Story piece on St. Dominic\u27s Church in Portland and Portland\u27s Irish com

Cover Story piece on St. Dominic\u27s Church in Portland and Portland\u27s Irish community. Faced with a dwindling congregation and the need for $1 million in capital improvements to the building, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland closed the stately Gothic church in 1998. Portland\u27s Irish community plans to turn the building into an Irish Heritage Center (IHC). Much of the $1.8 million required to fully renovate the building is expected to be achieved through fund-raising. To date, the board has raised $75,000, two-thirds of that in the form of an interest-free loan from the Irish-American Club. The People\u27s Regional Opportunity Program (PROP) and the Portland West Neighborhood Planning Council plan to turn an adjacent school building into affordable housing units, and they joined forces with the IHC to present their proposal to the city of Portland last October. A major issue affecting the viability of the proposed heritage center as a public venue is that it has no on-site parking for proposed events, some of which are projected to draw up to 300 visitors