First, there are the problems with Dublin city councillors. It seems that current and former Dublin city councillors, together owe more than €146,000 to Dublin City Council in overpaid travel expenses. Same was discovered in an investigation by the Local Government Auditor, (Nosy interfering Busybodies).
Inner Relief Road, Archaeological Survey, Click HERE
This 2021 audit identified that councillors, for this Dublin local authority, had been overpaid their annual travel rate, by €48.42 every month, but only as far back as January 2018, amounting to €581.10 a year and a total of €2,324.40 for politicians who had served on Dublin City Council since 2018.
Sure, for God’s sake it was only taxpayers money, and sure taxpayers couldn’t give a f..k. I mean if taxpayers had been fooled into voting “them’s individuals” into office in the first place, they must have expected they would be taken advantage of; lest you forget the F.F. brown envelope planning era.
It has been a tough few days for Tipperary Co. Council this week also. On Wednesday last “RTÉ Investigates” journalist Con Corrigan, “deliberately picked on”, our beloved Tipp authority, daring to accuse them of ‘Project Costs Over-runs‘, [ See HERE ].
It appears that a project known as the Suir Blueway, stretching from Clonmel to Carrick On Suir (Not to be confused with the Thurles River Suir Brownway); the former, incorporating a walking and cycling trail along the River Suir in south Tipperary, was initially budgeted for €1.3, then (like the National Children’s Hospital), it became €2m, but ultimately costs eventually closed at €3.7m.
The final costs increased a mere 84% only, on the original budgeted amount; that’s according to documents released to RTÉ Investigates, under freedom of information.
Anyway, the RTÉ Investigates episode didn’t upset Tipperary Co. Council’s Chief Executive Mr Joe MacGrath, who went missing from work on Friday last.
(I should explain that we at Thurles.Info have a habit of sending emails to those we write about – well they might want to accuse us of telling ‘porkies’).
Well Holy God, shock of shocks, the night before last, after 3 years and numerous emails sent, didn’t we actually get a reply, for the very first time, (despite no intervention by the Standards In Public Office Commission), from Mr Joe MacGrath. Well I nearly died.
He stated, quote “Please re-send your email to evelyn.harty@tipperarycoco.ie or contact her at Tel 0818 06 5000. I am away from my office with limited access to emails.”
Then it struck me, this was one of those “Automatic Replies”, latter being doled out normally from every government office in Dublin, but same rarely replied to after that. [Sure you know yourself, in the Public Service half are still working from home and the other half are not working at all, at all].
Anyway, my first thoughts were, why don’t they buy Joe one of those new-fangled Mobile Phone contrivances; called ear phones or eye phones, whatever. My understanding is that they can now be put to vibrate silently in your trousers pocket, and when activated they can read, and let you see your emails off of a screen, on one side of the device.
Well to cut a long story short, on the same Friday, I had to go over to Cashel and Cahir; (NCT Business in Cahir, then off to buy a 3 scone and tea at Mikey Ryans in Cashel). On the way didn’t I get a call from an old school friend of mine, Charley. Hadn’t seen him in years and he was over visiting here, having brought the wife Camilla on a junket.
Listen, anyway as I’m chatting to Charlie, who did I spy out of the corner of my eye, but some one, the spitting image of Joe, edging in to have a selfie taken with Camilla. Still I can’t be totally sure it was him and since he doesn’t answer his emails, its a waste of time trying to find out.
Anyway, what I really want to talk about and show all our readers, is the pdf of the Thurles Inner Relief Road which ended up destroying the only remaining piece of visible great faminr history in Thurles. Same document failed to highlight the Great Famine Double Ditch; Public Right of Way; Mass path and Great Famine connection in its regurgated survey info, undertaken by Mr F. Coyne, BA MIAI, despite having surveyed the sections of land on both sides of this 5ft in width, Great Famine, 176 year old Double Ditch.
So Mr MacGrath, if you are reading this email, the Archaeological Impact Statement for the inner relief can be foundHERE, by you, Mr Ger Fogarty and indeed the rest of the interested world.
[Mr Ger Fogarty will note that the survey was undertaken in 2013, while Lions Club survey was undertaken in 2018.]
We have already sent this and other documents to “RTÉ Investigates”, then again they might not use the information, but not to worry, we will.
I think the time has come for raised Thurles voices and the digging up of discarded, hidden bodies.
“If the Government is to restore public confidence in its ability to stop abuse or misuse of power, it needs to accelerate efforts to promote transparency and accountability in public office.”
Approximately, half of the Great Famine Double Ditch, the last morsels of Thurles Towns rich history is now gone for ever, courtesy of “cute hoorism” by local councillors and their attempts at self promotion. Picture shows the base for the new inner relief road being installed.You can see from this picture that this new housing, in no way, impeded on this piece of national heritage. Pic. G. Willoughby.
Before I discuss the current situation regarding the loss of the Great Famine Double Ditch now and over the coming days and weeks, I would like to make the following statement known, to a shocked 5 to 8 thousand daily readers of Thurles.Info. I, George Willoughby, as a former proud member of the hugely respected Thurles Lions Club, wholeheartedly continue to support Thurles Lions club and their magnificent organisation in every possible respect, both in their past charitable efforts and in any future ventures. Thurles Lions Club are an organization comprised of members that give selflessly to Thurles town and its environs. They are collectively motivated simply and solely by a desire to do good and to genuinely help others. They are not currently and never have been, motivated by self promotion like our current local councillors, and millionaire chasing local politicians. They never have and never will use and abuse causes which seek only self promotion.
Tar & Cement – Author Verdelle Smith. “Many years later, tired at last I headed for home to look for my past I looked for the meadows, there wasn’t a trace Six lanes of highway had taken their place Where were the lilacs and all that they meant Nothing but acres of tar and cement. Yet I can see it there so clearly now Where has it gone? Yes I can see it there so clearly now Where has it gone?”.
How Councillor Mr Seamus Hanafin [See last paragraph on Mr Hanafin’s Facebook page, dated February 20th 2022], went on to, quote, “acknowledge and thank Thurles Lions Club, who have been to the fore in this project”remains a total mystery to the Lions Club members with whom I spoke.
This evening March 25th, 2022, I wrote/sent the following email to the editor of the Tipperary Star, Mr Noel Dundon.
The text reads as follows:- “To Mr Dundon, It is with regret that I must now insist that no further photographs (being my intellectual property) either taken in the past, or photographs from my current social media pages and websites, are to be used in any of your publications. As you will be aware 99% of pictures taken and published in the Tipp Star in the past 40 years, were given to your publications totally free of charge.
However, recently you promoted Councillor Seamus Hanafin in an article which I find totally untrue. It claimed that Thurles Lions Club was involved in the Thurles River Walk path project, suggesting that the club were involved in the loss of the Great Famine Double Ditch. In publishing this article you used my picture/image of Thurles River Walk, firstly without crediting the author and secondly using details in your text that I regard as untrue.
This picture must now be removed from all on line publications immediately.
From recent talks with Thurles Lions Club members, no funding came from the Lions club organisation, for these projects and as a former Lions Club member and strong supporter of International Lionism, I find that their name is now being used incorrectly in relation to recent lost heritage; lost to the business people of Thurles, its residents and Thurles Tourism.
It is with regret therefore that I can no longer commit to allowing any of my work to be used in your local papers/editorials. Previous permissions granted are now fully rescinded. It is also disappointing to note that at no time over the past 3 years did any of your publications, despite being approached, attempt to support Thurles people in retaining now defunct heritage; instead deciding to churn out the effluvium sent to you by local councillors and politicians. From next week I personally will no longer purchase your weekly publication, in protest.
I remain, Yours Sincerely George Willoughby.
In the next few days Thurles.Info will be discussing my dealings over the past 3 years with our Government Departments; that of Heritage, National Parks & Wildlife Service, latter in their failure in protection, granted by Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, while under the governance of Green Party Minister for State Mr Malcolm Noonan, and finally the National Monument service, and Tipperary Co. Council’s Heritage Office, all of which are no longer fit for purpose in modern Ireland.
“Our heritage is about our past, our present and our future and contributes greatly to the quality of life in our urban and rural communities. It is shared by all and is fully inclusive. Interaction with our heritage not only provides physical and mental health benefits but contributes to overall well-being, while biodiversity is an essential component in the functioning of our environment”. –Mr Joe MacGrath, Chief Executive, Tipperary County Council.
“The aim of the plan is to connect the citizens of Tipperary to their heritage and to make it an integral part of everyday life at the core of our communities” – Cllr Siobhán Ambrose, Tipperary County Council.
“Our heritage is a precious asset and one we must look after. Part of looking after it is to raise awareness of what it is and its value to us as citizens of Tipperary.” – Cllr Roger Kennedy, Tipperary Heritage Forum.
See HERE just in case we have misquoted any of the 3 persons above named.
As the sun sank slowly on our western shores today, yet another piece of Thurles history, namely the Great Famine Double Ditch, has been totally and wantonly obliterated; without the consent of the electorate, and sanctioned by those we elected to serve both our town and county.
Mr Seamus Hanafin in particular who attempted, on radio and social media, to stage a personal PR stunt, together with his colleagues and council officials, and certain individuals within Thurles Lions Club, should now feel both guilt-ridden and deeply ashamed of their actions in this matter.
We know when councillors and politicians are telling lies – their lips move.
Under the Roads Act 1993, it was the responsibility of the local authority, in this case Tipperary Co. Council, to protect the public’s right to access this Public Right of Way, Mass path and Historical Artifact.
Where a local authority proposes to extinguish a public right of way it is required that the local authority (Tipperary Co. Council) must publish a notice in a newspaper circulating in the area specifying the place and times (being a period not less than four weeks) where a map indicating the right of way proposed to be extinguished, may be inspected.
Affix a copy of such notice in a prominent position at each end of the public right of way proposed to be extinguished and leave it in place for a period or periods which shall in aggregate, be not less than fourteen days.
Afford an opportunity to persons making objections or representations and who so request in writing, to state their case at an oral hearing conducted by a person appointed by the local authority and consider the report and any recommendation of the person so appointed.
None of the above regulations were adhered to by Tipperary Co. Council (Joe MacGrath Chief Executive) or indeed Thurles Municipal Council (Ms Sharon Scully, Thurles District Administrator).
Elected public representatives must now answer for this total, wanton, destruction of this Great Famine cultural and historic artifact, which saved the lives of some 80 starving families, here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, in 1846.
The Atlanta, Georgia US born Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (Pen name, Peggy Mitchell, November 8th,1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American journalist and author who provided us with that great 1939 epic historical romance novel, “Gone With The Wind”; same being one of those golden American pieces of literature that readers and later film goers, worldwide, can truly never forget.
She too had been born into a family with ancestry not unlike that of her novels heroin, namely Scarlet O’Hara.
Philip Fitzgerald, Margaret Mitchell’s maternal great-grandfather, had emigrated from near Fethard, Co. Tipperary, same then a fortified, small walled town, shortly after the 1798 Rebellion.
The family were seen as Catholic refugees attempting to evade oppression. Philip Fitzgerald eventually settled on a slaveholding plantation, near Jonesboro, Georgia, US, where he had one son and seven daughters with his wife, Elenor McGahan, who herself was from an Irish Catholic family.
Margaret Mitchell’s grandparents, Annie Fitzgerald and John Stephens had married in 1863; her parents, father Eugene Muse Mitchell, an Attorney, was descended from Scotch-Irish and French Huguenots, while her mother, Mary Isabel or “Maybelle” Stephens, was of Irish-Catholic ancestry, and were both married at her parents mansion home on November 8th, 1892. For the young Margaret Mitchell, (latter regarded as a ‘Tomboy’); Annie Fitzgerald/Stephens, her grandmother, (latter often regarded as both vulgar and a tyrant), existed a great source of eye-witness information, when it came to stories of the American Civil War.
Published in 1936, her only novel ‘Gone With the Wind’, turned the 4 feet 11 inches tall Margaret Mitchell immediately into an instant celebrity; earning her the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. In the same year Mitchell sold the movie rights to film producer David O. Selznick for $50,000, (Equivalent value today of $838,615 or approx. €747,296), latter being the most ever paid for a film manuscript at that period in time.
The film version, a four-hour epic, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, both being portrayed as ill-fated lovers Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler came out just three years later; winning a record-breaking nine Academy Awards in 1940. Today more than 30 million copies of Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War Novel have been sold worldwide and same has been translated into 27 different languages.
We will never know just how much of her novel contained tales about Fethard, here in Co. Tipperary, learned from the knees of her parents and grandparents, for alas, on August 11th, 1949, Margaret Mitchell was struck by a car while crossing a street to attend a theatre engagement and, sadly, died five days later.
So how much ancestral Irish influence came to the fore in the fictional imagery of Peggy Mitchel’s mind, when she wrote “Gone with the Wind” ?
Rhett Butler: Would her grandparents have talked largely about the Butler lands which stretched from Co. Kilkenny across Tipperary to Cashel and Cahir? Would they have spoken of Cahir Castle, Co. Tipperary? Cahir Castle, winner of the European Film Commissions Network (EUFCN) Location Award in 2021; is one of the largest remaining castles in Ireland. Today, sited a mere 23 minute drive from Fethard, on an island in the river Suir in Co. Tipperary; Cahir Castle had been built in the 13th century, before being granted to James Butler, then newly created Earl of Ormond, for his loyalty to Edward III, in the late 14th century.
Scarlett O’Hara: The name O’Hara has held a distinguished place in Ireland for centuries, mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, (latter compiled between 1632 and 1636). The current spelling of O’Hara is an anglicized pronunciation of the original Irish ‘Ó hEaghra’, meaning “descended from Eaghra”, latter a 10th century Irish chief.
Plantation Tara : Tara is the name of the fictional plantation in the state of Georgia, in this historical novel “Gone with the Wind.” There is little doubt that Mitchell modelled the fictional Tara Plantation after local plantations and establishments existing before the US Civil War, particularly the Clayton County plantation on which her maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens (1844–1934), daughter of the Irish immigrant Philip Fitzgerald (1798–1880) and his American wife, Eleanor Avaline “Ellen” McGhan (1818–1893), was born and raised. ‘Tara‘ is also an anglicization of the Irish name ‘Teamhair’. The Old Irish form is ‘Temair’. It is believed this comes from common Celtic, ‘Temris’ and means a ‘sanctuary’ or ‘sacred space’ cut off for only ceremony. ‘Tara’ was once also the capital of the inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland. The namealso appears in Irish mythology. According to the aforementioned Annals of the Four Masters, five ancient roads or ‘slighe’(Ways) meet at Tara, linking it with all the four provinces of Ireland.
Note First, Tipperary County Council’s Mission Statement: – View HERE
“If you send us a letter, fax or email we endeavour to acknowledge receipt of all relevant correspondence within 7 working days of receiving same and ensure that a substantive reply to a query will issue within 20 working days where information is readily available. All replies to queries will be in a clear, concise and easily understood manner.” – Tipperary Co. Council.
“The public is entitled to expect conduct of the highest standards from all those involved in the local government service, be they councillors, county/city managers, other local authority staff or non-councillor members (“external members”) of local authority committees”, – Tipperary County Council’s guarantee/ commitment.
To date, despite constant communications sent over a 3 year period, to Mr Joe MacGrath(Chief Executive Tipperary Co. Council), and most of our elected councillors, not even one reply has yet to be received. To do so would have been to admit their ignorance of history and their incompetence regarding an Archaeological Impact Statement, delivered to accomodate the destruction of Thurles Heritage, by those who should have known better.
See our article dated August 21st, 2020. “We had hoped to get reassurance regarding the preservation of the “Double Ditch” and a commitment to its upgrade as a tourist attraction, when we wrote to all elected public representatives and senior Council officials, some 5 weeks ago. However, the silence emanating from all local elected politicians, including Fianna Fáil TD Mr Jackie Cahill; Independent TD Mr Michael Lowry and all County Councillors, within the Templemore / Thurles Municipal District, leave us now fearing the worst possible scenario”. View article HERE.
On February 20th, 2022(12 days ago or two full working weeks), local Thurles Fianna Fáil Councillor Mr Seamus Hanafin announced on his Social Media page, quote:
“Continued progress on the Suir river walk. Last year saw the completion of the first phase of the Suir River walk from Thomond Road to Clongour. The path was resurfaced and widened and has made the walk much more accessible and pleasant for everyone. Lots more people are using the walk as a result. Over the next six weeks we will see more progress with two more sections being upgraded. This coming week contractors will begin site preparation works on the pathway running from Monakeeba to the Mill Road through the double ditches. Some vegetation will be removed and illegal dumping cleaned up. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks they will then commence widening of the path, re-surfacing and fencing. This will provide an off road walk from the Mill Road to Kickham Street When this is completed, contractors will then move to Ladyswell to carry out the same works from the Turtulla side to the Mill Road. This work is very welcome and will be a real addition to the amenity of our town. Phase by phase we are delivering a better, safer and more accessible leisure route around our town. As always, I want to acknowledge and thank Thurles Lions Club who have been to the fore in this project and the management and engineering staff of the Thurles Municipal District for their on-going efforts. Work will continue to deliver further sections of the walk.”
Not to be outdone; other Local Councillors quickly followed, with similar announcements on their Social Media pages.
Let us examine in detail Mr Hanafin’s above stated, vote attracting, public announcement.
“Lots more people are using the walk as a result.“Thurles people have always used the Thomond Road to Clongour river walk. His statement is therefore totally untrue and we ask Mr Hanafin how he can justify this same comment. On the contrary, people, during the summer months, have avoided using the river walkway, due the stench produced, under his watch, by currently one of the dirtiest rivers in Ireland. View HERE(note date November 7th, 2013) – View HERE(note date April 17th, 2019) – View HERE(note date October 25th, 2019) – View HERE(note date September 16th, 2019). For the past nine years, Thurles.Info have requested that the council should deal first with the River itself, yet nothing was done over this 9 year period, except to dig up a perfectly good tarmacadam pathway and remove 150 metres of Whitethorn, during the nesting season, behind the new Lidl supermarket. Perhaps we should now address Thurles Lions Club, in an effort to stop the destruction of our River Suir, (either way it will be taxpayers/public money that is used).
“Some vegetation will be removed…“ According to the Cambridge Dictionary sitting here on my desk, “Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide”. No vegetation was removed on the Great Famine Double Ditch. The workforce was instead instructed to remove the 5ft high common hedgerow tree, known and loved as ‘Whitethorn’. Work commenced on February 21st, 2022, in the full knowledge that 7 days later, the cutting of hedgerows would be restricted, [as set out in Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976; as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000; and the Heritage Act 2018]. The aforementioned Acts also stipulates that it is an offence to destroy vegetation on uncultivated land, between the 1st of March and the 31st of August each year. This destruction was completed by the contractor on Wednesday 23rd February 2022, affecting the north side of the 175 year old Great Famine Double Ditch.
Why the north side, I hear our readers ask? We do not know for sure but we have our suspicions which we will air at a later date. No development plans have been supplied by the Council or Thurles Lions Club, other than a map showing the removal of a large section of this area to build an inner relief road, which if constructed must now be traversed by those same people walking, using the Double Ditch. (See Map at start of Video)
“…illegal dumping cleaned up“. Within the past two working weeks, the illegal dumping has actually increased. (See the video above and weep). Not one unsightly item has been removed by the Council since we highlighted this issue, back in May 2019. If you decide this weekend to take a walk on the Great Famine Double Ditch, (and we hope you do), take note of the opening picture in our video shown above. Same area is reminiscent of the American neo-Western crime drama and television series “Breaking Bad”, created and produced by Vince Gilligan, still available for viewing on Netflix.
“Widening of the path, re-surfacing and fencing“ Same walkway is (1) a Mass Path; (2) a 175 year old Public Right-of-Way and (3) a Great Famine project, construction of which paid 8 pence per day to some 80 starving Thurles people, living through, thankfully the last incidence of large-scale hunger in our western world. Mr Hanafin and his colleagues and council officials have totally failed to provide information on how Tipperary Co. Co./Thurles Lions Club intend to re-surface and fence this historic site. There has been no consultation with the public, in any way; on costings, or with the Heritage Council.
It is estimated that this Great Famine (1848-1851) caused some 1 million deaths from direct starvation, poor hygiene and hunger-related disease. A further estimated 1.3 million Irish people were forced to emigrate, with Ireland, as a whole, losing a quarter of its population during those terrible years; with 30% of the population being lost in Co. Tipperary.
Irish nationalists would lay Famine blame squarely at the feet of the British Government, seeing it as an invincible argument in favour of self-government. Yes, it took the effects of World War I and a dramatically changed international environment, to give Ireland that opportunity to take on the strongest State in the world and win its hard fought independence, which eventually came about some seven decades after the Famine, culminating eventually with a failed 1916 rising, but an eventual 26 county free Republic.
“This will provide an off road walk……..” . Please note ‘off road walks’ are called “Footpaths”, Have you recently examined the sunken footpath on the Slievenamon Road, opposite Ely’s Centra, Supermarket, which on every day it rains; same fills with water and has been calling for repair for the last 15 years; or perhaps the footpath in front of the Circle K Petrol Station, situated on Kickham Street, latter danger calling for repair for over 5 years?
Fianna Fáil and those of other political persuasions in Thurles and Tipperary, who spend their idle days chasing millionaires, in the hope of gleaning crumbs from their table, continue to wander around spouting what they will do tomorrow, next week, next month and next year and end up doing nothing. We watch as all that is positive within our lovely town, no longer being maintained, e.g. our 6 year old town park; our town road signs; our local graveyard, etc, etc.
…….. double ditches…….. Correct name, Councillor Hanafin, for this area, is Great Famine Double Ditch. Respect please; call it what it is. (See Page 6HERE.)
Questions that now need to be answered, as local Councillors, their officials, led by Tipperary CE Mr Joe Macgrath, congregate in their ignorance, to deprive the residents of Thurles of their proud history.
* Will Ms Sharon Scully (Thurles Municipal District Administrator), seek assistance from the Department of Heritage, in relation to the ongoing destruction of the Double Ditch? If Ms Scully takes a look at the incorrectArchaeological Impact Statement, provided by Mr F. Coyne BA MIAI; on page 25, Mr Coyne provides a map showing clearly the Great Famine Double Ditch, which Mr Coyne and Tipperary Co. Co. conveniently have failed to acknowledge, (View map on Video again).
* Will re-surfacing of the Double Ditch be ‘tarmacadam’, ‘cement’, ‘gravel’ or ‘paving’ ? (the latter ‘paving’ Mr Hanafin stated in his pronouncement on local radio recently?)
* Has Thurles Lion’s Club (TLC) now taken over the day-to-day operations of the Thurles Municipal Council, or is TLC just one man who knows how to locate government funding to glorify TLC? [Perhaps I should ask TLC to fix the depression outside my home, since Mr Joe MacGrath, Councillors Hanafin; his Colleagues and Officials are unable to organise.]
What irreparabledestruction has already happened, courtesy of Tipperary Co. Council, on this Great Famine Double Ditch?
The legal term“irreparable damage” means that the harm done (or the potential damage caused), cannot be reversed or corrected in the future and I am sorry to announce this has already happened, thanks to Councillor Hanafin, his council colleagues and council officials. (View Video above again.)
Tipperary County Council Heritage Statement.
“The aim of the plan is to connect the citizens of Tipperary to their heritage and to make it an integral part of everyday life at the core of our communities” – another Fianna Fáil Councillor – Ms Siobhán Ambrose. View HERE.
Heritage structures remain extremely important in demonstrating the cultural identities of rural and urban communities, especially in places like Thurles, which has a Tourist Office and now has nowhere locally, to send even one visiting tourist, should they decide to stay overnight.
In our present era, adaptive reuse of such monuments as this Double Ditch, has always been considered as an excellent strategy, for protecting such structures, both for the present and for future generations; from which we can then learn and enjoy.
Gone: Two Great Famine built stone piers, guarding a farmland leeway, together with a blacksmith constructed iron gate, (Latter valued at between €3,000 to €5,000, if offered in a private specialist sale), both now demolished by heavy machinery. The gate now stands broken and bent, because the keys to its padlock were no longer available.
Uprooted: A portion of the 176 year old ditch, to facilitate a large pipe which has been driven through the centre of the ditch, possibly for sewage. This Double Ditch area which had previously yielded a Bronze Age spear head and a Stone Age axe head, (currently on display in our National Museum), saw no archaeologist present during this desecration and attempted ground reconstruction.
Deforestation: Whitethorn trees have been removed, together with barbed wire fencing and new wooden stakes, paid for 4 years ago by taxpayers. Locals state that most of the barbed wire was loaded on a small truck, while the stakes have been removed, to the nearby housing estate, with sawdust indicating same are being used for winter fuel. As our video shows a half bale /roll of barbedwire lies in the vegetation for the past 4 years, never returned to the council yard.
Over the coming weeks we will be commenting further on this Famine Heritage destruction, by Tipperary Co. Council; Thurles Municipal District Council and Thurles Lions Club and the total failure that is the role not being provided by the offices of Tipperary Heritage, and the offices of Minister of State for Heritage, Mr Malcolm Noonan TD. together with National Monument Service.
A link to this above statement has been sent, on behalf of the people of Thurles, to all elected representatives and officials.
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