CITY TRIBUNE
New Chief Superintendent set to take over the reins in Galway
From the Galway City Tribune – It’s a changing of the guard in terms of policing in Galway from the middle of next month with one Chief Superintendent retiring from his post and another taking up the reins.
Tom Curley from Kiltoom in Co Roscommon – who has been Chief Supt in Galway since 2014 – will work his last day in the job on November 14 and Gerry Roche, from Abbey, Loughrea, will take over from him.
Both men worked together in Mill Street during which time Tom Curley was Superintendent and Gerry Roche had just been appointed as a Detective Inspector.
One of Chief Supt Curley’s first major investigations involved the discovery of a man’s body in a city fish shop in 2007.
The body of Patrick McCormack from Artane in Dublin had lain in the freezer room of Mermaid Fishmongers on Henry Street for five years (2002 to 2007) before being discovered during a routine health inspection at the shop.
Subsequently, 43-year-old Eddie Griffin, with an address of Cimín Mór, Knocknacarra was convicted of the manslaughter of the deceased man and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Later on, in the same year, both Curley and Roche headed up the investigation into the brutal murder of a 17-year-old Swiss student, Manuela Riedo, on wasteland close to a walkway known as The Line near Renmore in October 2007.
Subsequently, Mervue native Gerald Barry with an address of Rosán Glas, Rahoon, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Manuela Riedo, who was on a short-stay visit to Galway to learn English.
Gerry Roche, who comes from a farming background in his native Abbey, served as Detective Inspector in Galway from 2007 to 2012, before being promoted to the rank of Superintendent in 2012 to Ballinasloe. He has served as Chief Superintendent in Limerick for the past five years.
Chief Supt Roche, who also worked in the Garda Drugs Unit in Galway, is highly regarded within the force and has a specialist knowledge in the workings of organised crime gangs across the country.
He told the Galway City Tribune this week that he looked forward to returning to Galway and in embracing the challenges faced by the Garda Síochána in making his native county a safe place for everyone to live in.
“I’d like to think that I’m very well grounded in knowing the challenges posed in ensuring that we can all live in a safe, secure and peaceful environment. As always, I will be looking to the public for their support and help over the coming months and years,” he said.
Retiring Chief Supt Curley told the Tribune that he wanted to thank all the many people including the general public, his work colleagues, political representatives and the press, for their support during his time in Galway.
“What I always looked for in my time here in Galway was sufficient resources – in terms of personnel, vehicles and equipment – to enable us to carry out our duties to the highest possible standards.
“The opening of the Regional Garda HQ in Galway City in 2018 was a real highlight for me in that it enabled us to provide the best possible service for the people that we serve – namely the general public.
“I have seen specialist units such as protective services [involved in the investigation of sexual crimes and child/domestic abuse] expand over recent years, while we have also expert officers dealing with the growing threat of cyber crime.
“We also faced huge challenges with the Covid pandemic through 2020 and 2021 and I am very proud of the manner in which members of An Garda Síochána stepped up to the plate during very difficult times for everyone,” said Chief Supt Curley.
He joined the force in July 1982, served as a garda and sergeant in Dublin for a number of years before taking up the post of Inspector in Athlone from 2000 to 2007.
He completed further courses at the Garda College before being appointed as Superintendent in Galway in April 2007, being promoted to Chief Superintendent in 2010, serving first in the Mayo region, before returning to Galway in 2013.
(Photos: Retiring Chief Superintendent Tom Cur;ley (left) and his successor, Gerry Roche).
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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