News
Fury as playground becomes a health hazard for children
Local residents are up in arms that their much loved park has become the ‘Wild West’ of Galway.
Regular users of Doughiska Park contacted the Galway City Tribune about the state of the park, claiming the grass has not been cut all summer and the area has become a faeces-laden den where children and adults alike are at risk of serious accident due to the lack of maintenance.
Two dead rats were recently discovered at the entrance to Merlin Woods school.
Walkways have become extremely overgrown with weeds and brambles. Boulders which had been placed by the Council to prevent a Traveller encampment have been moved to the centre of the park and are being used by kids to jump off.
Doughiska Park was opened to much fanfare six years ago as a vital resource in an area under intense pressure due to rapid development in the boom years. However, it is now regarded as a no-go area by a large section of the community, according to one resident who bought a home there 11 years ago.
“Myself and my friend were walking up there the other week and there were two dead rats at the entrance to the school. It was absolutely disgusting,” remarked Rosaleen Garvey.
“The wooden slats on the path have become so grown over that if you fell, you’d break your leg. The place is used as a playground by dogs who run around without a leash and is full of faeces – there’s no signs up and when you ask people to pick up after their dog or put them on a leash, you’re told where to go.
“I was told by one man that I should be on a leash myself. My friend who is training for a marathon was bitten by one of these big dogs, she was also hit with a stick and abused verbally by one of the Travellers now living there. It’s got to the point we can’t go there anymore.”
Ms Garvey said she and several neighbours have rang Galway City Council several times and emailed the Parks Department to clean up the park.
Local residents Valerie Carroll (left) and Rosaleen Garvey at the blocked roadway entrance to the park at Doughiska and Merlin Woods.
But all to no avail.
In response to warnings that the boulders posed a health and safety risk to children, one official told her they had not been put there by the local authority.
“And then they’re on about stopping the kids from playing ball on the beach. One councillor is selling bottled air, another wanted the dustbins painted – you couldn’t make this up. All of us pay for those people to be in jobs. I went to a meeting once and it was like a bad episode of the Muppets.”
Some locals who used to take it upon themselves to pick up the broken bottles, cans and papers strewn throughout the green have given up in despair.
“All through the summer this has been left as a wasteland – the grass is five feet high. It’s like the wild west,” insisted Ms Garvey.
“It wouldn’t happen in Salthill or Barna, but because the majority of people who live here are foreign nationals they don’t care. People here are obviously not shouting loud enough.”
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
