Archive for April, 2010

Justice lost among sea of buggies and jargon

At last week’s sitting of Gorey District Court, it seemed as if the court service were trying to break the world record for the most people in a courtroom at one time.

As it was the first criminal court sitting in four weeks, it would have been expected that a larger than normal crowd would be in the courtroom at 10.30am on Thursday morning, however it seems as if every case that is currently before the court in Gorey was listed for hearing on this day.

For some it was a family day out with kids, buggies and Nintendo DSs all out in force. For others it was the sobering shock of their first experience of a court room. Every strata of society were packed into the crumbling courtroom on Charlotte Row awaiting the arrival of the Judge who would dispense wisdom and hand out justice from on high – county councillors, former TDs, TV stars, doctors, thieves, drug users were all well represented.

However the reality of a District Court such as this is: less complex legal argument; more cattle market. It is a matter of sheer volume. The court list had over 220 separate cases listed for last Thursday. Over 380 separate charges were to be dealt with in some way – and these are before the last minute bench warrants, fresh charge sheets and search warrants are added.

There were more than ten separate contested cases due to be heard in full – with witnesses, gardaí and defendants all in court ready to argue their side. Only one of these was heard and only because the defendant was in custody.

Despite only hearing one contested case, the Judge, court clerk, gardaí, reporters and defendants didn’t finally leave the court until past 7pm that evening.

As the court clerk diligently began calling out one list after another, the Judge could be heard to utter with incredulity: “There’s another list?” on several occasions. He made several public comments as to the length of the list and asked how anyone was to get anything done with such a list.

While the Judge, gardaí and solicitors were aware (for the most part) of what was going on during the sitting, the public were left to stew in their own juices while legal argument and jargon flew at the top of the room. It was chaos.

There was no justice handed out last week – only cases shoved from one date to the next with everyone looking to gain an advantage. The Judge tried his best to make some progress in each case that was called before him but it was like fighting a rising tide.

Every time he seemed to be making progress another spanner would be thrown in the works and the whole thing would collapse and have to be heard again on another date.

For some people coming back to court will be another day out but for other it will mean an extended period of uncertainly and pain.

The District Court can be a superb mirror to the current state of the nation – a sharp increase in robberies shows people are getting desperate; a growth in the number of people driving without insurance shows people are willing to take a risk due to lack of money and an overcrowded courtroom shows either an inefficient system or an alarming spurt in the crime rate.

It seems as if certain Judges are happy to continuously adjourn cases with some appearing on the list last Thursday for the 11th or 12th time. This clogs up the court system and cases are not heard in a timely manner and as a result a solicitor will claim undue delay in bringing the case to trial and the whole case will be thrown out.

No doubt this overcrowding is not an isolated occurrence and while it would be nice to think people would learn their lesson and not reoffend, I have a feeling we will be looking to break the world record in Gorey’s new courthouse in the near future.

2010
04/18
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Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder

On Friday last, the pubs and clubs of Gorey remained silent as Ireland’s continued adherence to a Catholic way of life shows no sign of ending.

The whole notion of abstinence is a sound one. It does us good to keep away from alcohol and even meat for a while, but in the 21st century it seems a little medieval to be told when we should have to do this.

According to the drinks industry, Holy Thursday and Christmas Eve are the busiest days of the year in off-licences across the country – and this was certainly in evidence in Gorey last week.

Late on Thursday evening in supermarkets and off licences all over Gorey shopping trolleys were stacked high with cases of beer and bottles of wine. The look of sheer panic on people’s faces as the deadline for buying alcohol approached would have been funny if it didn’t reveal a larger problem in the Irish psyche.

Faced with the possibility of having one day without a drink, people seem to turn to blind panic and so end up drinking a lot more than they normally would.

I believe that should the government do away with the law on pubs closing on Good Friday – as they did in Limerick for the Munster vs. Leinster game – it would lead to less alcohol being consumed.

By all accounts Limerick on Friday evening was not the hedonistic over-indulgent session which was reported in some media outlets last week. Publicans reported a quieter than normal Friday night.

The fact that people in Ireland are forced to comply with the arcane rules of the Catholic church in 2010 is ludicrous and when the overwhelming evidence is that it is leading to a larger consumption of alcohol it is surely time for the rules to be changed.

Gorey was like a ghost town on Friday with practically no business being done and traders complaining about the lack of footfall on the Main Street. In the current climate it is surely just putting further unnecessary pressure on traders across the country to curtail the amount of business licenced premises can carry out.

While some publicans opened their doors in Dublin and around the country to serve food, teas, coffees and soft drinks this practice didn’t take place in Gorey. Charlie Chalke, the outspoken Dublin publican and friend of Bertie Ahern, has claimed over the weekend that by next Good Friday he would be serving alcohol in his pub along with all the others in Ireland.

This clash of cultures will see the two biggest lobbying groups in the country go head to head in attempting to persuade the government to their way of thinking. The publicans and the Church both have too much sway over the law makers in this country and it will be interesting to see which one will win this battle.

While the credibility of the Church has suffered as a result of the child abuse scandals of recent years, it is still enshrined in our Constitution and has a powerful hold over a generation of older Irish people who still view it as a de-facto royal family in this country.

As the minutes counted down to 10pm on Thursday night and the off licences and supermarkets around Gorey were getting ready to finish serving, hundreds of people were looking forward to a Great Friday and over-indulging in a way that would not have crossed the minds of their parents or grandparents.

While I believe it is a good thing that the Catholic Church has less of a hold over the running of this country, we seem to have replaced one God for another and the sooner the Good Friday law is changed the better.

2010
04/18
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Education is a lottery these days

Picture the scene. The music room in Gorey Community School last Thursday evening at 3.30pm.

The room is packed to capacity with anxious parents and children. At the front of the room a garda sits next to the principal, Michael Finn. A group of envelopes sit on the table with the names of the students in them.

One by one the envelopes are emptied into the box and lots are drawn for the few remaining places at the school in first year next September. It is a scene you would never expect to see in Ireland following a decade of unprecedented prosperity in the country – yet 45 children in the catchment area of the school have been left with very little option with any other school in the area (Kilmuckridge and Carnew) also closing their doors in the children’s faces having already filled their quota for the coming year.

One student last week turned to her mother having failed to secure a place in the lottery and asked was it her own fault she hadn’t got a place in the school. Parents and children shed tears in the school on Thursday. Boys and girls realising they would not be attending secondary school with the friends they had grown up with. Parents left helpless and facing the choice of sending their children outside the county to be educated or as one parent is thinking about, holding their child back to repeat sixth class in a Gorey primary school in order to be guaranteed their place in the school the following year.

The fact a town the size of Gorey has only one school – even if it is the biggest school in country – is unbelievable. In the past decade the population of the town has doubled with the populations of towns in the catchment area such as Courtown and Riverchapel experiencing similar increases.

Last week Michael Finn said that the Department of Education had been made aware of the situation last May but nothing has been done to pre-empt the crisis and the parents and students of the town are now left with little or no option.

270 first year students is a huge amount of pupils to take on in any one school and it is a credit to the dedicated staff and administrators in Gorey Community School that they operate their school so efficiently and with such results despite the immense pressure they are under.

The option mooted this week of putting temporary accommodation on the site of the proposed new school in Creagh is symptomatic of the ad hoc solutions this government is constantly using to plaster over the cracks throughout Ireland.

Remember that only “outline” planning permission has been granted for the school that is due to open in 2012. The country is littered with stories of un-built schools and empty promises by the department of education.

To believe that the department of education will come through and deliver a spanking new school for Gorey within 18 months is stretching things a little too far when not even full planning permission has been granted for the project as of yet.

Whether or not that happens is academic for the 45 children and their parents who are this week facing the prospect of having nowhere to go in September. Mary Coughlan was last week given the Education portfolio in Brian Cowen’s reshuffle. Considering her disastrous term in charge of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the 45 pupils and their parents looking for a solution to their problem will not be holding out much hope that she will be able to find one.

2010
04/18
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Paddy’s Day all the Way

Big Zeb in action

This week saw the Irish national holiday celebrated in style in Gorey but it is still a matter of debate which event on St. Patrick’s Day garnered the bigger crowd.

As the men and women of the Tara Rock’s Social Club were hard at work churning butter and turning wood on their award winning float in the 30th Gorey St. Patrick’s Day Parade another son of Gorey was hundreds of miles away winning a race with a most un-Irish name.

Gorey-trained and owned Big Zeb stormed to victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Racecourse, romping home at the price of ten to one.

The parade kicked off at 3pm and as it wound its way down Main Street and onto Esmonde Street, the amount of people covertly checking their watches grew. Men with children on their shoulders and women with buggies all looked furtively around as Gorey Active Retirement paraded past with their version of Snow White and the Seventy Dwarfs.

Among the thousands of people lining the street watching their friends and family celebrating the nation’s patron saint, there was surely a large number with a couple of euro each-way on Big Zeb.

Outside Bronagh Stafford told the crowd she was proud so many of them had shown up to celebrate the 30th running of the parade. Inside the pubs and bookmakers things were a little tenser.

“Zeb’s never jumped well in England.” “Barry [Geraghty] will do it alright, he’s been down here schooling him.” “The ground will suit him.”

Everyone had an opinion and they were all right. It’s amazing how many racehorse experts come out of the woodwork for the Cheltenham festival. In Gorey it was no different and people spoke in hushed whispers on mobile phone, as if they had a direct line to Big Zeb himself and were ascertaining his mood.

People who may have never before set foot in a bookies tried to look like they knew what they were doing but the fact they were checking the runners and riders in the 5.45pm in Darlington gave the game away.

However everyone was in buoyant mood being the day that was in it and those needing a little help were pointed in the right direction and shown the secrets of writing out the betting slips. Big Zeb was the big bet and the people of Gorey remained loyal to one of their own.

While the crowds loudly cheered on the participants in the parade outside, a hush descended on the bars and bookies around Gorey.

As the horses lined up for the off, the Wexford colours worn by Barry Geraghty were the focus of all eyes watching the race in Gorey.

The crowds watching the parade seemed to have diminished somewhat at about 3.19pm. Children wandered the streets with the faces painted and green hats on but with their parents nowhere to be seen.

For the first circuit of the famous course there was silence while people tried to get a sense of the race and how things were going. It was good for Big Zeb, he was going well and looked in control.

As the final stages of the race approached and the jockeys jockeyed for position, one calm authorative voice from the corner announced “Big Zeb’s got it.” That was the cue for the rest of us to start screaming at the TVs clutching our betting slips for dear life.

As it became clear the Colm Murphy-trained, Paddy Redmond-owned horse was indeed going to win, people abandoned all decorum and hugged those next to them and punched the air as if they’d won the lottery.

After the race as the celebrations died down and punters went to the counter with smug looks of satisfaction and knowing winks to each other, they made their way back outside where the celebrations for Paddy’s Day continued.

2010
04/18
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Welcome to the Muppet Show

The monthly Gorey Town Council meetings should be required viewing by all resident of the town. It is the best and cheapest entertainment in town.

With a cast of characters unrivalled on any stage in Ireland, John B. Keane would kill for a setting and storyline like this. For two hours on the second Tuesday of every month the councillors arrange themselves around the table in the Market House and let fly – well most of them do anyway.

For every brash loudmouth you need a meek mouse, unwilling to have their say and willing to just be a passenger on this ludicrous bandwagon.

For months not the simmering tension between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil has been boiling over with Chairman Colin Webb and Lorcan Allen doing a good impression of Stadler and Waldorf – the two cranky old men form the Muppet Show who complain about everything.

This week however we added a couple of more characters to the show with Cllrs Robbie Ireton and Jimmy Fleming displaying their obvious contempt for each other.

Sitting cheek-by-jowl at the far end of the council table the tension between the two grew as the meeting progressed and by the end of the night both were letting fly at each other with not-so-witty insults along the lines of “You’re a liar”, “No, you’re a liar”, “No YOU’RE a liar” etc…

So while Webb and Allen and Fleming and Ireton played out their own private battles the rest of the cast were content to sit back and listen, adding their own little comments from time to time.

That was until Cllr. Matt Travers had had enough. Towards the end of the meeting, he stood up, put on his jacket and made for the door. As he held the door knob, he turned to address the meeting.

“I made three or four attempts to speak and you did not let me in,” and with that he exited stage left.

Rather than consider what had been going on at the meeting and if they had excluded Cllr. Travers from having his say and representing his people, the councillors returned to form and used it as a stick to beat each other with.

The Fianna Fáil characters said Fine Gael were not letting them have a say and excluding one of the longest serving members of the council. Fine Gael said it was typical of Fianna Fáil to quit when the going gets tough.

For all the bluster and hot air expended at the meeting, it was hard to see what was actually achieved. The methadone clinic was discussed without any new information; the state of the roads was discussed without any new information coming to light; half an hour was taken up on a discussion of the link road in Gorey before a report on the matter which never materialized; the stand orders were changed – though they’ll have to be rewritten and re-presented to the council in April; the possibility of the AMAI conference coming to Gorey was discussed and a sub-committee was sort-of formed – not exactly what you would call a productive meeting.

Some lyrics from the Muppet Show Theme tune seem appropriate and maybe the council might play this song before every meeting rather than saying the prayer: “Why do we always come here / I guess we’ll never know / It’s like a kind of torture /

To have to watch the show”

2010
04/18
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Action not oratory needed at times like these

Last week the doors closed at Ivory’s shop on the Main Street for the last time – 68 years after it first opened.

The proprietor Billy Cush was “devastated” at the closure and made some pointed remarks regarding the reasons why his grocery store had to close down.

Among the reasons Billy felt was to blame was the high cost of commercial rates in the town. Another was the apparent trend for major retailers to move away from the centre of the town.

If we look at the Main Street in Gorey, it is clear that, in recent times, this once thriving thoroughfare is seriously feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Across the street from Ivory’s The Bank bar and restaurant closed its doors in the past few weeks and alongside it another premises remains vacant.

While this is worrying, another issue that could see the Main Street resemble a ghost town is the imminent move from the Market House of the library and council offices.

If the Market House is not immediately reoccupied, it will add another nail in the coffin of Gorey’s retail hub and any potential businesses looking to set up in the South East will surely think twice about setting up on a street where a sizeable proportion of the units are vacant or closed down.

The council didn’t raise the commercial rates in this year’s budget. This however is not the proactive solution to the problem which is needed. What if they had slashed the rates in order to attract businesses to the town and as a result brought some vibrancy back to the Main Street.

This week also saw a meeting held in the Ashdown Park Hotel where a large crowd gathered to discuss the plans for the Showgrounds and Town Park. While there were representatives from sports clubs and other interested parties at the meeting, it seemed as if the four or five councillors at the meeting were treating it as another podium for their views to be heard.

Lorcan Allen, Malcolm Byrne and Michael D’Arcy dominated the meeting and while they are fully entitled to their say, the meeting seemed a little like a party political broadcast and not the open discussion that was needed.

While the possibility of the Showgrounds being redeveloped must be welcomed in the town, it is not at the front of a lot of people’s minds compared to lost revenue and lost jobs elsewhere in the town.

The opening of the new Civic Centre on the Avenue (whenever that will happen) will again give the town a boost, but there needs to be a action taken, and soon, by those in charge about bringing jobs to Gorey.

The IDA have been criticised recently for not bringing a single job to the town in the past 20 years, yet those who know the town a lot better and have been elected by the people of the town need to stand up now and do what they can to bring some employment to the area.

Dr. Zion Evrony, the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, was recently welcomed to the Market House by the town councillors, officials and representatives of the local business and artistic community.

As he sat in the council chamber listening to the politicians and businessmen speak about the great plans they had for links between Gorey and Israel, Dr. Evrony stopped them and said that he didn’t just want to speak about these things. “Let’s be practical.”

Those three simple words should be adopted as the mantra of the council in Gorey and it would serve them and the town well if at future meetings, instead of grandstanding and one-upmanship they would just get down to business and do what is practical for Gorey and what will hopefully return the Main Street to a thriving centre of commerce.

2010
04/18
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People living in fear in north Wexford

The recent wave of crime being perpertrated along the costal region of north Wexford raises a lot of questions in relation to garda presence in rural parts of the county.

The sudden rise in violent, armed crimes in the region have put residents and particuary elderly residents in fear for their lives. The residents of Ballycanew, Ballygarret, Kilmuckridge, Courtown  and dozens of other villages in the area are in fear of the next raid and know they are a target for gangs of criminals due to the fact they have no garda presence.

Don’t get me wrong, the gardai who responded to the armed robbery in Kilmuckridge last week, did so with speed and efficiency. There was a large garda presence at the scene within 15minutes of the alarm being raised.

Gardai from Gorey, Enniscorthy and Blackwater all responded to the call from Hammel’s and by all accounts dealt very professionally with the situation and stayed in touch with those affected in the days following the robbery.

There is no doubt that the gardaí working in the county are dedicated and want to protect the people and make sure things like this don’t happen again.

But if we think back, didn’t exactly the same thing happen to exactly the same person in exactly the same post office almost six years ago?

So what has changed in the meantime? Nothing it seems. Criminals know they can pull up to a busy petrol station/supermarket/post office at 4.15p.m. as the school across the road is letting out and  know the garda won’t be anywhere near them for at least 15 minutes.

Now it is possible that a garda stationed down the road in Blackwater would be on the spot sooner, but that’s a slim chance and one the criminals it seems are willing to take.

The possibility that the crimes are being perpertrated by roving gangs of criminals from the capital is one of the possibilities gardaí in Wexford are investigating, but there is a belief among the residents of north Wexford that a undesirable criminal element has relocated to the area and as a result is gaining local knowledge they can pass on to gangs in Dublin.

In recent years there is no doubt the population of north Wexford has swelled and from anecdotal evidence a large porportion of these people are from the capital. Whether rightly or wrongly people seem to have the impression that not all the people who have relocated to the Model County are Model Citizens.

Whether or not these crimes are being carried out by locals or visiting gangs is moot as the garda presence in certain areas is non-existent and therefore an open invitation seem to be extended to anyone looking to exploit the situation.

So the problem is not the fault of the gardai currently working in north Wexford but is down to a question of resources and distribution of those resources. Clearly in the last six years the Celtic Tiger has brought about a huge increase in the populaiton of the area, however it seems as if a similar increase in the number of gardaí patrolling the area has not accompanied the boom.

Many elderly residents in the area have taken things into their own hands and installed closed security cameras in their homes to see who is at their door. They fear for their safety and as the summer approaches and the population of the region swells even further, something will have to be down to ease their fears and deter the criminals looking to take advantage of the situation.

2010
04/18
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Ah ah ah….ah come on now!

“Ah Ah Ah….”

“Don’t ‘Ah Ah Ah’ me”

“Don’t you interrupt me”

“You have no idea how to run a meeting”

This erudite discourse is only a sample of what was discussed at the February edition of the Gorey Town Council meeting, which descended into a schoolyard spat between two councillors who should have known better.

Mayor Colin Webb and Lorcan Allen spent a couple of hours bickering and sniping at each other in the council chamber to the obvious frustration of the council officials.

Although their fellow members seemed happy to sit back and throw in the odd jibe or ‘hilarious’ comment about George Lee or Charlie Haughey – depending on which side of the political divide they rested their well-fed behinds.

The constant bickering has been a staple of the meetings since last June’s local elections when Fine Gael took control of the council for the first time in eons and Fianna Fáil were regulated to the wastelands of Opposition – a burden they don’t seem to be handling with any kind of grace.

Neither though can it be said are Fine Gael wearing their new position of prominence with any dignity. Mayor Webb has lowered himself on several occasions to the same personal gutter-sniping as the opposition, which demeans the council as well as the councillors.

In June the people of Gorey elected nine councillors as their representatives in local government. While it is obvious that town councillors have about as much power as the Greens have in the Dáil, they should still uphold the values of public office even if it is only for the sake of propriety.

The council officials at the meeting (Ger Mackey – town clerk; Niall McGuigan – director of services; Neville Shaw – engineer and Barry Hammel – Roads) looked decidedly peeved at the actions of the ‘people’s representatives’. They had better things to be doing on a cold Tuesday evening than listening to the jeering, mocking tones of the councillors. Indeed, I had better things to be doing.

The attacks became personal and it seemed at one stage that things were going to get out of hand. Despite the belief of the Mayor that the spat didn’t delay or slow done the work of the council, this is clearly not the case.

The four Fianna Fáil members of the council (Cllrs. Allen, Travers, Fleming and Byrne) seem to be opting out of council business due to a preserved slight by Fine Gael over the appointment of a committee – and this cannot be good for Gorey.

I am sure the people of Gorey didn’t vote for any councillor into office, so that he or she could involve themselves in petty in-fighting and rabble-rousing.

At the meeting this month, nothing concrete was achieved. The council went around the Methadone Clinic merry-go-round once again; they slapped themselves on the back for carrying out a public light survey and they argued and they argued and they argued.

The Local Government Act was threatened and the values of the Labour party were questioned. The meeting descended into farce yet no one seemed to care too much.

“Ah yeah sure it’s politics, it’s not personal.”

I am not naïve enough to believe that town council meetings should mirror the oratorical debates carried out by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Greece, but surely a modicum of decency and decorum could come into play.

I think it is time for a re-think of the way local authorities are run. Getting rid of councillors would certainly free-up council officials’ time and budgets to actually get some real work done – as opposed to babysitting the council babies.

2010
04/18
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