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Council set to remove ‘unauthorised’ memorial plaque
The 1916 commemorative stone unveiled in Mervue on Holy Thursday will be dug up and put into storage in the coming days, the Galway City Tribune understands.
Pressure has been applied to management at Galway City Council by a number of local councillors who object to the commemorative stone at Connolly Avenue.
However, it is understood residents of the avenue named after James Connolly, will resist any attempts by the authorities to remove it.
The stone has an Easter lily engraved in it, a symbol which is traditionally worn by Irish Republicans to mark the anniversary of the Rising and to honour Republicans who died during 1916 Easter week.
The engraving on the stone reads: “To the people of Galway a sheas an fód ar son Phoblacht Na hÉireann”.
The stone was erected on City Council land but, according to the local authority, it was put in without permission, and without the executive’s knowledge.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for erecting the stone but Fine Gael city councillor Pádraig Conneely is blaming Sinn Féin, who he accused of “hijacking” the 100th anniversary celebrations.
As well as Cllr Conneely, it is understood that Independent councillors Declan McDonnell, Terry O’Flaherty and Noel Larkin, all well as Mayor of Galway, Frank Fahy, contacted City Hall last week about the structure.
“I’ve asked the Council to remove the stone and my understanding is that it will be taken down,” said Cllr Conneely this week.
A commemoration stone engraved with the proclamation and surrounded by trees was unveiled in Shantalla over the weekend at a ceremony presided over by the mayor. Cllr Conneely said he supported that stone, because it had the Shantalla Residents Association had the imprimatur of the Council to erect it.
“The one in Mervue is political propaganda by Sinn Féin/IRA. It is a Republican and IRA stone. There is no place in Council land for politically-motivated propaganda structures.
“It was put up without planning permission, in the dead of the night without telling anyone, with no regard to regulations and protocol or health and safety. If somebody falls over it, who will they sue? The City Council. The Mervue Residents Association knows nothing about it. This is just Sinn Féin/IRA trying to hijack the commemoration,” he said.
Cllr Conneely said it was significant that Sinn Féin’s Mairéad Farrell was present at the unveiling. “None of the rest of us 18 councillors were invited. She says she doesn’t know who organised or paid for the stone. But who invited her? Surely they know who put it up.”
Cllr Farrell insisted the stone and its unveiling was a “community event and community effort” not a political one. Cllr Farrell chaired the event, and the stone was officially unveiled by Renmore historian, Micheál Ó Ceallaigh.
“In no-way was this a Sinn Féin event. It wasn’t just Sinn Féin people, there were about 100 people there from the community. I’m surprised by the reaction in the media, to be honest. If you see the stone, there’s nothing offensive about it. It’s actually just a nice way of commemorating 1916. Mervue used to be part of Castlegar parish, and that was one of the areas in Galway, that took part in the Easter Rising and Galway was one of the main places outside of Dublin involved in teh Rising so it is right and proper.”
Cllr Farrell agrees the Council has the power to remove the stone but she sees “no reason whatsoever why it should be removed”.
She added: “I don’t think there is any need to take it down. I know the people of Connolly Avenue certainly don’t want it taken down. They are 100% behind this. In their eyes, this is the proper way to celebrate 1916. It is under four feet tall, and my understanding is that means it doesn’t need planning permission. In 1995, residents – and there is a Council letter to this effect – were asked to maintain that green area and take ownership of it, which is what they’re doing.”
A City Council spokesperson said: “It was put in place inappropriately; and where it was put in is in the public realm. There are a number of issues arising out of it, not least planning permission but not confined to planning permission. You can’t just come in overnight and put up a structure anywhere you like, which does appear to be what has happened in this case. We still do not know who erected this.”
The spokesperson confirmed the Council has been contacted by “a number of councillors” to have the stone removed, although he wasn’t 100% sure whether it would be removed or not. He said it had been cordoned off but the hoarding had been removed. The stone will be inspected next week when the relevant Council workers return from Easter break.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
