Grazing horses damage headstones in cemetery

Horses left to graze along the disused rail track in Tuam are finding their way into the local cemetery and destroying graves and headstones.

Representatives from Irish Rail are being summoned to a meeting of Tuam Municipal Council to explain how they are allowing horses to graze along the track and yet will not allow a greenway to be provided there.

It has been stated that four or five piebald horses were spotted in Tuam Cemetery last weekend and they had caused considerable damage to graves.

According to Cllr Donagh Killilea, the horses had come from the adjoining railway track where they have been grazing for a considerable time.

He made reference to the fact that Iarnród Eireann seems to have no problem with stray horses grazing along the track and yet they closed of a section of the railway line in Tuam which had been used by students and members of the public going about their daily business.

The Fianna Fáil councillor said that the horses were doing considerable damage to graves in Tuam Cemetery and Irish Rail should shoulder some accountability for this.

“The horses are grazing on the railway line and are not being prevented from doing so. And yet when we want to enhance a section of the track near the town centre, they put up barricades.

“We have to do something about the horses that are finding their way onto the graveyard by either confiscating them or prosecuting their owners but something needs to be done,” Cllr Killilea added.

He said that Irish Rail were riding roughshod over Tuam and particularly in its inability to get a greenway provided along the track, which has been the subject of a three year long campaign.

Cllr Shaun Cunniffe said that there was a section of the railway from Vicar Street to the Galway Road which was cleaned up, bottles and needles removed and there were plans to provide shrubbery there.

But he said that “political intervention” resulted in nine feet high steel gates being erected at either end to prevent any notion of a greenway being provided.

The independent councillor said that Irish Rail had done a lot to prevent developments in Tuam and blamed them for their willingness be guided by political interests.

“They have built a fence around the railway track in Tuam without any planning permission and now they have to go seeking retention.

“I have spoken to Irish Rail about them preventing public access along the stretch in town and they won’t respond.

“Tuam Tidy Towns put a lot of work into cleaning up this section of the railway line and they were going to enhance it with flowers and shrubs but Irish Rail just closed it down by erecting high gates on either end,” Cllr Cunniffe said.

A letter is being sent to Irish Rail asking them to attend a special meeting of Tuam Municipal Council.