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.
Lyrics and Vocals: Australian pop singer and songwriter, Dean Lewis Grant Loaney, (Dean Lewis).
Early morning there’s a message on my phone. It’s my mother saying, “Darling, please come home”. I fear the worst, but how could you leave us all behind? There’s so much to say but there’s so little time, So how do I say goodbye. To someone who’s been with me for my whole damn life? You gave me my name and the colour of your eyes. I see your face when I look at mine, So how do I, how do I, how do I say goodbye? When I couldn’t, you always saw the best in me. Right or wrong, you were always on my side, But I’m scared of what life without you is like, And I saw the way she looked into your eyes, And I promise if you go, I will make sure she’s alright, So how do I say goodbye. To someone who’s been with me for my whole damn life? You gave me my name and the color of your eyes. I see your face when I look at mine. So how do I, how do I, how do I say goodbye? And there’s no way you could ever let me down. Gonna steal some time and start again. You’ll always be my closest friend, And someday we are gonna make it out. Just hold the light, just hold the light, So how do I say goodbye. To someone who’s been with me for my whole damn life? You gave me my name and the color of your eyes. I see your face when I look at mine. So how do I, how do I, how do I say goodbye? So how do I, how do I, how do I say goodbye?
Vocals: The magnificent voices of American country singer, songwriter and guitarist, Chris Stapleton, and his American singer, songwriter wife Morgane Stapleton(née Hayes), latter performing the harmony and duet vocals.
Amanda.
Lyrics: Retired American songwriter, the great Robert Lee McDill.
I’ve held it all in, God knows I’ve tried, It’s an awful awakenin’, In a country boy’s life. Look in the mirror, In total surprise, At the hair on my shoulders, And the age in my eyes. Amanda, light of my life, Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife. Amanda, light of my life, Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife. It’s a measure of people, Who don’t understand, The pleasures of life, In a Hillbilly band. Got my first guitar, When I was 14, Now, I’m pushing 40, And I’m still wearin’ jeans. Amanda, light of my life, Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife. Amanda, light of my life, Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife.
Lyrics and Vocals: American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist, the late Michael Joseph Jackson, (August 29th, 1958 – June 25th, 2009).
Heal The World.
There’s a place in your heart and I know that it is love, And this place could be much brighter than tomorrow, And if you really try, you’ll find there’s no need to cry, In this place you’ll feel, there’s no hurt or sorrow. There are ways to get there, if you care enough for the living, Make a little space, make a better place.
Chorus
Heal the world, make it a better place, For you and for me and the entire human race. There are people dying, if you care enough for the living, Make a better place, for you and for me.
If you want to know why there’s a love that cannot lie, Love is strong, it only cares of joyful giving, If we try, we shall see in this bliss we cannot feel, Fear or dread, we stop existing and start living, Then it feels that always a love’s enough for us growing, So make a better world, make a better world.
Repeat Chorus And the dream we were conceived in will reveal a joyful face, And the world we once believed in will shine again in grace. Then why do we keep strangling life, wound this Earth, crucify its soul, Though it’s plain to see this world is heavenly, be God’s glow. We could fly so high, let our spirits never die. In my heart I feel you are all my brothers, Create a world with no fear, together we’ll cry happy tears, See the nations turn their swords into ploughshares. We could really get there, if you cared enough for the living, Make a little space, to make a better place.
Repeat Chorus (3 times)
There are people dying, if you care enough for the living, Make a better place, for you and for me. There are people dying, if you care enough for the living, Make a better place, for you and for me. You and for me. (Make a better place). You and for me. (Make a better place). You and for me. (Make a better place). You and for me. (Heal the world we live in). You and for me. (Save it for our children). You and for me. (Heal the world we live in). You and for me. (Save it for our children). You and for me. (Heal the world we live in). You and for me. (Save it for our children). You and for me. (Heal the world we live in). You and for me. (Save it for our children). Save it for our children. END
Vocals: Tennessee banjo player Mr Troy Boswell, known professionally as Leroy Troy.
Lyrics: American stand-up comedian and singer Sean Morey and American songwriter and actor Stan Jones
Ghost Chickens in the Sky.
A chicken Farmer, took a walk, out on his farm one day, He paused by the coop, as he went along his way, When all at once a rotten egg hit him in the eye, It was the sight he dreaded, ghost chickens in the sky.
[Chorus]
(Chicken clucking/crowing sounds) Ghost chickens in the sky.
He’d been a chicken farmer since he was twenty four, Working for the Colonel, for thirty years or more, Killing all theses chickens and sending them to fry, And now they want revenge, ghost chickens in the sky.
[Repeat Chorus]
Their beaks were black and shiney, their eyes were blazing red, They didn’t have no feathers these chickens all were dead, They picked the farmer up and he died by the claw, They cooked him extra crispy, (pause) and they ate him with coleslaw.
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