CITY TRIBUNE
GAA puts country first in courageous Covid stance
Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley
The GAA is hungry for money; it’s a money-grabbing organisation. That’s been the popular refrain for years now.
It’s mostly a criticism from non-GAA people but even the organisation’s own grassroots members use it as a stick to beat the suits in Croke Park with.
Any time there’s a draw in an important championship match, a common reaction is to blame the referee, who ‘played for a draw’. The snide innuendo is that there’s some sort of conspiracy to produce replays and boost gate receipts.
It is through that prism that the GAA’s admirable and courageous stance during the Covid-19 crisis should be viewed.
The GAA has been lambasted by a vocal minority of Gemma O’Doherty-type extremists from outside and within, for taking a cautious approach during the coronavirus health pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 people on the island of Ireland, including 1,600+ in the Republic.
The daily death tolls – thankfully falling – are so great, they’re difficult to fully process, and comprehend. Were the daily deaths occurring in ‘normal’ times and caused by something like a car crash, or a fire, they’d each merit a national day of mourning.
The hurlers on the ditch, and clueless amateur epidemiologists, who for weeks called ‘ad nauseam’ for pitches to reopen and games to restart, would be first to attack Croke Park as ‘money-grabbers’ for resuming before the experts agree it’s safe to do so.
Some commentators would have us all out licking each other’s hurls in the morning. One even suggested that because GAA players are highly-conditioned athletes they are less susceptible to contracting Covid-19.
Tell that to the 36-years-old UHG nurse, with no underlying health conditions, who was battling for life in ICU last week, having caught the highly-contagious, deadly virus.
But even if the ‘highly-conditioned’ footballers and hurlers somehow had miraculously developed an immunity to Coronavirus – if it’s true, could ye let the thousands of medics worldwide who are scrambling to find a vaccine in on the secret; O’Neill’s short shorts, perhaps? – these athletes have loved ones who are less immune.
Amateur players, while eager to get back playing, are intelligent enough to know that they could be asymptomatic carriers. That’s the cruel thing about Covid-19 – it’s a silent spreader – and they could infect their parents or partner or siblings. And what about ‘less-conditioned’ linesmen, umpires and other volunteers?
Fallow pitches in May and June is far from ideal, but GAA President John Horan did the decent, honourable thing by closing them.
By taking leadership, and making the decision centrally, he spared volunteers of club committees from the inevitable local pressure to re-open. One Galway soccer club did reopen pitches but closed again because of anti-social behaviour and a dangerous disregard for social distancing. That’s what Horan wanted to avoid.
Horan and GAA people like him in Galway in positions of leadership, haven’t cribbed or moaned about loss of money.
Instead they’ve joined the thousands of ordinary members who’ve shown meitheal, by volunteering in communities to help vulnerable people to get through Covid-19.
That silent majority – who are just as eager as the loudmouths to see play resume – are proud of the selfless stance their organisation has taken in Ireland’s darkest hour.
As restrictions ease in the coming weeks, it’s a comfort to the grassroots that the GAA will continue to act responsibly, while remaining agile to respond to the evolving advice of expert virologists and epidemiologists.
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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.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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