Archive News
Has Hogan defused the septic tank row that could have been a stinker?
Date Published: {J}
Environment Minister Phil Hogan will need to keep his fingers crossed that his announcement last week of that €50 charge to register septic tanks will quell one of the biggest political rows the west has seen.
Compared to the potential anger among the thousands of septic tank owners, the row over whether to cut turf in western bogs, is small-time stuff. The once-off houses in rural areas and in areas not served by sewerage and water services have ensured that there are thousands of householders deeply incensed at this issue.
Hogan, in the Dail, announced that the charge would be once-off and the money would be used to run the septic tank inspection systen which would conform with the European Union regulations on the septic tanks. It was up to the government to set up a system, or face massive fines from the EU.
Also keeping their fingers crossed will that swollen crop of Galway government TDs, most especially Sean Kyne and Brian Walsh (Fine Gael West Galway) – an area with one of the highest concentrations of septic tanks in the country.
It will also be a headache for Paul Connaughton and Ciaran Cannon (FG East Galway) and Colm Keaveney (Labour East Galway) who will have noted the size of the attendances at those recent meetings on the issue called by Marian Harkin MEP.
Galway was one area where the talk of a possible €300 fee – possibly per annum along with huge maintenance bills to keep the tanks up to the required standard – had resulted in hundreds of home owners turning out to those public meetings to voice their objection …. and show the government the major controversy this could become.
Then came last week’s announcement of a once off €50 registration fee for the thousands of septic tank owners. He said it was definitely a once off and the funding raised would go towards the cost of carrying out the inspections.
But one of the leading campaigners in this row, Fianna Fail Deputy Leader Eamon Ó Cuív TD said this week that he had doubts whether some of the tank owners would accept even the concept of registration – it enshrined with a registration system the difference in treatment in this country between urban and rural dwellers.
He said that any charge promised as a once off might well be varied, and the inspection process to lead to real trouble ‘on the ground.’ He asked that would happen if there were houses where a neighbour had a traditional septic tank and the other had put in a very costly treatment system costing thousands. How could they be treated equally.
Fine Gael Dail Deputy Brian Walsh said that he and the other FG West Galway Deputy, Sean Kyne, would be pressing for the introduction of a grants scheme to be introduced at the same time as the registration system so that householders whose septic tank systems were not approved by the inspectors, would be aided in replacing the system.
He said that the present government had in many respects been left to pick up on another total dereliction of duty by the Fianna Fail-Green government which knew that the problem was there, that the EU was annoyed and yet it had done nothing about this septic tanks issue.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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