The year was 1878; the month was October, when a headline in “The Western Daily Press” newspaper (published in Bristol, England), stated, quote; “A Committee Should Consist of Three People, One of Whom Is Always Sick and the Other of Whom is Always Absent”.
The year was 2013, the month was November; when we at Thurles.Info first highlighted the state of the River Suir, particularly within the centre of Thurles. [VIEW HERE]. North Tipperary Co. Council officials, same recently retired, denied any such issue with the river, despite the photographic evidence provided. Over the last, almost 11 years, all efforts put in place to correct these issues of decline within this area, were slowly dismantled by council officials. Where is the fountain, Councillors and their red faced officials refuse to answer?
Again, over the same almost 11 years, local press and local radio namely “The Tipperary Star”, and “Tipp Fm” radio refused to publish or to highlight issues regarding the River Suir. Both same media outlets choosing instead to publish other dubious and suspect press releases, same prepared by power seeking local councillors, their officials and our two local residing goverment politicians, intent on personal vote catching exercises and self glorification.
At least 4 times every year, over the past 11 years, Thurles.Info has written about the declining state of the River Suir, often forwarding same to highly paid officials in Tipperary Co. Council; e.g. Mr Joe Macgrath(Chief Executive) and Ms Sharon Scully(Thurles Administrator), but to no avail. Also almost every month we have published press releases from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), warning on the decline in our rivers and streams.
The current town administrator, Ms Sharon Scully, in an email dated January 18th 2022 stated, quote, (In relation to road signs facing in the wrong direction)“Resources can only be dedicated to this task when more urgent works such as housing repairs, burials, and roadworks allow”. In the same email, Miss Scully also stated, quote, “I would like to see Thurles town promoted in a positive light – the good work that has been carried out, such as works on Liberty Square* and the River Suir Walkway, as well as funding that has been secured to redevelopment Thurles Market Quarter, and also deserve mention. When we highlight only the negatives, in a public forum, it misleads people as to all the town has to offer and paints the town of Thurles in a light that I’m sure neither you nor me want”.
*Liberty Square— With its double signposting only feet apart; its street lighting that burns night & day; signs pointing in the wrong direction; a confined traffic space that forbids a mother to open a car door to place a child into a rear car seat, and the aroma of raw sewage emerging every time temperatures reach 18° Celsius.
Double Sign Posting just feet apart, Liberty Square Thurles. Pic: G. Willoughby.
*River SuirWalkway — Tarmacadamed, destroying existing biodiversity and which has already started to ravel. *Thurles Market Quarter, — 3.4 million being to spent to build a second restaurant and a market quarter, both of which the public never asked for and which reduces car park spaces for existing struggling businesses.
On the following day Ms Scully stated also in a further email, quote,“I think it is very important that any town has strong community engagement, where issues that are of importance can be highlighted and discussed. However, when this is done in a public forum it can paint the town in a negative light, particularly when the positives are not also highlighted”.
Ms Scully ‘community engagement‘ in Thurles is only in token, and businesses and residents are not heard, in favour of poor planning and and what appears to be unqualified planning architects. So we should hide our towns deficiencies in the hope that consumers and non existant tourists won’t discuss their inability to find a parking space in a small rural town.
Note the dates November 2013 and January 2022. Now in September 2024, nothing has been done to solve the river Suir issues or the town drainage issues, as Mr Jackie Cahill TD, Mr Michael Lowry TD, Local Councillors and Thurles Municipal District Council officials drive their motor vehicles through a deserted Liberty Square, with windows tightly closed, to avoid the smell of raw sewage.
We are now informed, 11 years later, following a video posted on Thurles.Info, on August 17th last, VIEW HERE, that biologist Mr Fran Igoe, a spokesperson representing the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) agrees that what is happening in Thurles and the river Suir is ‘shocking‘. Of course Mr Jackie Cahill TD was quick into the fray, ‘calling for action’, in an effort to protect the farming community, latter partially responsible for its demise.. Mr Igoe (lAWPRO) has stated that test results, now show that while one should expect to find a broad range of aquatic insects and bugs, he could only find two species in our river.
Reed cutting began on the River Suir Thurles, today September 18th.Last time these reeds were cut was in March 2019, prior to the local elections. Pic: G. Willoughby.
Just two days after the Council meeting on Monday last; this morning, Wednesday 18th September, 2024, a group of men are to be found in the river strimming the reeds and removing last winters tree branches, same washed down from upstream. [You would swear RTE were coming to video the area, for Thursday’s “RTE Investigates” programme].
This latter happening came as a massive surprise, since we were informed by one local Councillor, that LAWPRO would be leading the process. They alone would be drawing up a plan of action which would involve input from all the relevant bodies within a 6 month time span to produce an agreed action plan. At that stage they would apply for funding to carry out all recommendations in this future completed report.
Funny thing, two days later, it appears that no consultation was required from the relevant bodies [e.g. Inland Fisheries, Biodiversity Ireland, Refresh Thurles, Birdwatch Ireland, Irish Environmental Network, Fauna & Flora International, National Parks & Wildlife and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.].
Could today’s action see Thurles now end up being prosecuted by some European environmental organisation? After all, in recent years, there has been a growing trend in people and organisations using Europe’s unparalleled system for protecting human rights in helping to tackle environmental problems.
Seriously, it should be noted that LAWPRO was set up in 2016(Eight years ago) as a shared service on behalf of the 31 Local Authorities in Ireland. The Programme operates nationally out of 13 different Local Authority centres. LAWPRO is supposed to be driving public engagement, participation and consultation with communities and stakeholders at local level via its Communities Team; while delivering a programme of catchment assessment in priority areas for action via its Catchment Science Team and coordinating these activities across the relevant public sector via five Regional Operational Committees. With this service set up in 2016, one must ask the question why does the river Suir in Thurles have to wait six months for an action plan, before seeking funding?
Swans remain residents on the river Suir in Thurles. Pic: G. Willoughby
Just to correct our councillor, who claimed that no Swans remain in the river Suir and the ducks have left; this is totally untrue in both counts. The two swans remaining in this, their home territory, have produced Cygnets each year. Once these Cygnets are old enough to look after themselves the parents cut their parental ties and chase them away, sometimes quite aggressively. The Cygnets normally join the first flock of teenage swans they encounter, where they usually hangout until they mature, at around 4 years of age and in turn locate a wife and then nature performs a full circle once again when they find their personal territory and raise a family. In the wild, with all of the hazards they have to live with (vandals, pollution, mink, overhead cables, lead poisoning, fishing-tackle injuries, wind turbine generators etc), the average lifespan of a Swan is 12 years, while in a protected environment they can survive up to 30 years of age.
The waste and neglect at local authority level continues.
3,600 new Irish citizens will attend at Citizenship Ceremonies in the Convention Centre, Dublin.
3,600 new Irish citizens will be granted Irish citizenship in three ceremonies all taking place today, Monday September 16th, at the Convention Centre in Dublin. The Ceremonies will see applicants from 143 countries around the world, who are residing across 32 counties on the island of Ireland, being conferred as Irish citizens.
This follows 14 such ceremonies held so far this year, with a total of 11,417 people attending and being conferred with Irish Citizenship. The Presiding Officer at the ceremonies is retired Justice Mr Paddy McMahon, who will administer the “Declaration of Fidelity” to the Irish Nation and Loyalty to the Irish State.
The Citizenship Division have introduced significant changes to speed up the applications process for applicants, including the introduction of an online digital application, online payments, and eVetting.
Over the last 2 years the Citizenship Division has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year, to processing over 20,000 applications in 2023. Already in 2024 nearly 16,000 decisions have been made in the first half of this year.
Last year, the Citizenship Division more than doubled the number of ceremonies available to applicants, with 15 held over the course of the year. This was a significant increase on 6 Citizenship Ceremonies held in 2022.
Including today, September 16th, the total number of Ceremonies held so far this year is 17, surpassing the number of ceremonies hosted in 2023. Further Ceremonies are being planned for later in the year.
New Irish citizens will undertake to faithfully observe the laws of the Irish State and to respect its democratic values. These new Irish citizens are contributing to a diverse and inclusive workforce, bringing a range of skills and talents that enhance the overall capabilities of the labour market and the Irish economy.
A female tourist, understood to be aged in her 70’s, has sadly died following a fall, while walking at a popular tourist attraction in Co Tipperary.
Gardaί and emergency services from Killaloe including the Tipperary Fire Brigade, quickly responded to the tragedy, which occurred in the Clare Glens, area near Newport in Tipperary, yesterday evening, Wednesday September 11th, at around 5:30pm.
Sadly the lady, who has not yet been named publically, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Clare River.
Gardai have confirmed that a coroner has since been notified and arrangements will now be made for a post-mortem examination to take place.
Back in January 2015 this extremely picturesque location, a popular visitor attraction for walkers, was the scene of a kayaking accident, when a 26 year old man, was injured while out with a group of friendsHe was treated in Limerick University Hospital for non-life threatening injuries, following a rescue operation which lasted some three and a half hours.
Thurles, Co. Tipperary continue in a cycle of spending large amounts of funding on projects that tick lots of boxes, but ultimately the town fails to maintain what it has already got and fails to fix longstanding important issues.
After spending, in or around some €10 million Euro on updating half of Liberty Square, ask yourself are traffic conditions any better? Motorists would confirm that conditions have become significantly much worse, with heavy goods vehicles (HGV’s) forced to traverse our medieval streets, with no progress being made with regards our long sought after “Thurles Ring Road”. Ask yourself why have all the business premises either moved or closed within the Liberty Square area of Thurles, and where is the promised increase in ‘footfall’, same now reduced by 60%, according to the few angry, remaining business owners.
Officialdom appears to “fix what isn’t broken”; the latest being a €3.4 million car park revamp near ‘The Source’ building, same only revamped some 8 years ago. Latter is just one example; as they simultaneously ignore what badly needs fixing, e.g. the river Suir in the centre of Thurles Town, same being just one example, which Thurles.Info has already highlighted, on numerous occasions, most recently on August 17th 2024 last, HERE.
But there are other amenities showing obvious decay, same directly highlighting officialdom’s utter neglect of town maintenance.
We have mentioned already the 8 year old re-vamped Town Park carpark, same now to be re-vamped, yet again, to become a Market area and Restaurant, as yet devoid of tenants, which will considerably reduce existing car parking spaces, while competing with existing local small businesses, same already struggling to operate just a few metres away in the Liberty Square town centre.
In recent weeks we have watched mature trees ripped out from this aforementioned Town Park carpark and re-sown close by, their bark extensively damaged by heavy machinery which was used to rip apart the tree heel mesh grills at their base. Two of these mature trees are unlikely to survive the coming winter.
New “Nature Signs” provided along the river walk, close to the junction of Emmet Street and Thomond Road, and only recently erected, have now been smashed by a very small group of “uncouth barbarians”, permitted to roam freely in the area. Of course no local residents nearby heard anything, as a large rock was used to pound the thick Plexiglas Perspex acrylic sheet, protecting its contents from weathering.
No Closed-Circuit Television Installed!
Signs are positioned nearby threatening CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) being in operation. Yet again, no CCTV has ever existed, covering this area, and proof of same is the amount of damage caused by the afore mentioned small number of “uncouth barbarians”, with no arrests ever being made.
The area in the park known as the “Fitness Zone”, again, has been totally neglected, with the individual sectioned area’s poles either pulled up or broken off. Same poles are now rotten, having been only preserved using one basic coat of fence preservative some 8 years ago, before being then left uncapped due to its semicircle (circular half arc) construction.
Video, shown above, is undeniable proof of this very small section of our town, now depicting that which normally indicates an inner-city slum.
Witch Hazel ‘Diane’ is a broad-crowned deciduous shrub, but more compact than some, remaining generally pest-free. It displays broad ovate or rounded leaves, which initially emerge as green, before slowly turning into brilliant shades of red and yellow from late Summer, right through, until mid to late autumn.
Witch Hazel ‘Diane’. Pic: G. Willoughby.
Witch Hazel ‘Diane’ is a winter-flowering shrub, which produces dense clusters of slightly scented, red to copper-red flowers in mid and late winter. Each of its flower consists of ribbon-like, crinkled, strap-shaped petals with claret bases and a purple-red calyx.
It enjoys a sheltered site, in well drained, acid to neutral soil in your garden. It can be sown in full sun or partial shade and in its early years can be planted in a large pot. Slow growing; when fully mature it can achieve a height of 2.5m (8ft) with a spread of some 3m (10ft).
To obtain most joy from this most attractive of shrubs, position same close to a window, if possible, where early or late sun can reflect its light through its amazing foliage.
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