Travel - Thurles Information

Happy Christmas From Thurles Co. Tipperary

From all at Thurles.info, may we wish our many readers: following us on social meadia; both at home and overseas, a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Nollaig Shona Dhuit (Ireland); Wesolych Swiat (Poland); Joyeux Noël French (France); Buon Natale (Italy); Frohe Weihnachten German (Germany Austria, Switzerland); Feliz Navidad (Spain and Gibraltar, Mexico, and Central and South America); Boas Festas (Portugal); Zalig Kerstfeest (Belgium); Prettige Kerstdagen/ Zalig Kerstfeest (Netherlands); Gëzuar Krishlindjet (Albania); Eftihismena Christougenna (Greece); Sretan Bozic (Croatia); Craciun Fericit (Romania, Moldova); Merii Kurisumasu (Japan); Kung His Hsin Nien Bing Chu Shen Tan (China); S̄uk̄hs̄ạnt̒ wạn khris̄t̒mās̄ (Thailand); Sung Tan Chuk Ha (Korea); Chuc Mung Giang Sinh (Vietnam); Karisama te nawāṃ sāla khušayāṃwālā hewe (India and Pakistan); Glaedelig Jul (Denmark); Rôômsaid Jôule (Estonia); Gleðileg jól (Iceland); Nadolig Llawen (Wales), and Hyvää Joulua (Finland).

Please Make Every Effort To Stay Safe Over This Holiday Season.

Truck Rearranges Street Furnishings In Half Upgraded Liberty Square, Thurles.

**Truck rearranges Liberty Square, Thurles, town Railing**

Sadly, the area was the scene of a pedestrian death on January 20th 2014. Since then the nearby railings, supposedly placed there to protect pedestrians, has since been replaced on three different occasions. Now for the fourth time, in possibly the past 36 hours, a large truck has again rearranged these same railings, at the junction of Liberty Square south and Slievenamon Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Yes, this is the Slievenamon Road, on the N62 route which is destined to be soon upgraded, by reducing its carriageway width, by widened/extending footpaths, by some 1.8m to 2.5m.

Any of you haulage contractors out there, with a truck missing a mudguard? Your driver failed to take it with him, having demolished railings, when failing to manoeuvre a left lane turn in Liberty Square Thurles. Co. Tipperary.

Peculiar, that with two currently resident Teachtaí Dála, both supporting the present government, no necessary funding has been acquired to provide a ring road for heavy traffic, thus relieving our medieval choked streetscapes.

Tipperary’s Cashel Palace Hotel, Named On Condé Nast Traveler Gold List 2024.

The Cashel Palace Hotel in Cashel, Co Tipperary has been named on Condé Nast Traveler’s Gold List 2024 as one of the best hotels and resorts in the world. View HERE.

Now in its 30th year, Condé Nast Traveler Gold List, is an annual miscellany of the very best hotels and resorts in the world, highly recommend by the luxury travel publication’s global editors.

The only hotel in Ireland to make the list, this newly-renovated 300-year-old Cashel Palace Hotel can be found situated at the base of the 12th-century Rock of Cashel, [E25 EF61], latter one of Ireland’s most historic sites and well known to visitors for its pencil-shaped round tower, Cathedral and Romanesque chapel.

Palladian in style, Cashel Palace hotel’s red brick facade contrasts with its limestone rear, and while the rear aspect of the building mirrors the front; the use of different materials makes it rare for a building of this period. Now newly and fully restored by the Coolmore Stud thoroughbred-training family, latter governed by Mr John Magnier, this Palladian manor is truly “a must visit”.

The building was initially designed as the residence for the Church of Ireland Archbishop Theophilus Bolton, in 1732, and designed by one of the pre-eminent architects of that period, Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699-1733), latter one of the most celebrated architects of the time, who in 1720 designed Dublin Castle; – in 1726 Drumcondra House; in 1727 the Obelisk, Stillorgan, Dublin, and in 1728 designed Dublin’s impressive Parliament House – now the Bank of Ireland* in College Green, Dublin.

*[A wit then quipped, on August 24th 1802 when the Bank took possession of Parliament House, “Since to a Bank, as ‘tis asserted, our House of Commons is converted; what most we want will be there, in place of what we best can spare.”]

It was in the 20th century that this bishops palace was first turned into a hotel, which then boasted such former guests as Miss Elizabeth Taylor and the late US President Mr Ronald Regan.

Condé Nast Traveler Gold List refer to the staff as “a well-oiled team that’s worked together for years”, and the buildings welcome being “as warm as the toasty log fires” in the “hotel’s woodsmoke-scented entrance hall”.

EU Commission Proposals Regarding Refresher Courses For Elderly Drivers Shelved.

New proposals suggested by the European Commission that, if implemented, could result in drivers over 70 years of age having to undergo driving refresher courses, will not be implemented here in Ireland.

**Just one small section of unravelled** **roadway on Kickham Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary ignored by local elected councillors and Thurles Municipal District officials.**

It has been confirmed that there are no plans by the Irish government to change the current age from over 75 years old to 70 years. Thus drivers under 75 years will not have to supply a medical report confirming their fitness to drive, unless they are specifically identified as someone who has a specific illness and therefore required to do so by law.

The European Commission’s proposals were centred around some motorists having to undergo regular medical tests and refresher courses in order to renew their driving licence. These proposals also suggest mandatory training for professional van drivers, as well as allowing children, as young as 16 years, to drive cars that have been fitted with a governor, thus limiting the top speed of their vehicles.

The new EU proposed directives, which are seen by some as being ageist, unfair, ineffective and harmful, will not be made mandatory for individual member states. While intended to improve road safety, same would be seen as being unjust to those drivers residing in rural areas, that have limited access to other alternative forms of public transport.

According to a European Transport Safety Council report, over 5,400 people aged over 65 years were killed on EU roads in 2021; a third of which were pedestrians.

Here in rural Co. Tipperary, an effort to provide and invest in local road improvements, would be identified as being much more beneficial to the elderly driver, than undergoing driving refresher courses, as anyone who has driven around the streets of Thurles town will most surely confirm.

Thurles Potholes Photographed At Low Tide.

Although the weather has been extremely cold here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary over the past week, it has remained extremely dry with very little rain.

We therefore took the opportunity to photograph two x 22.86 centimetre (9in) deep giant potholes or craters; call them what you will, currently available to view on the Mill Road, in Thurles, which we first highlighted on April 20th, 2023; again on October 15th, 2023 and more recently on November 24th, 2023 at high tide.

**One crater on Mill Road, Thurles, unattended since before April 20th, 2023.**

Today, again we photographed same, at low tide, in an effort to warn the public of the dangers when travelling on the Mill Road, with the craters existing just 600 meters (0.373mls) from the residence of one local Councillor.

**Second crater on Mill Road, Thurles, unattended since before April 20th, 2023.**

Since April last, yet another local town Councillor has been calling to local residents on this same Mill Road, canvassing for road frontage to enable the installation of a footpath and has failed to notice this piece of roadway sliding into the Drish river.

Today, we contacted Tipperary Co. Council Webform to report this issue. Same have replied as follows:

Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding ” Road or path defects “
I have forwarded your e-mail to the Thurles District Office for their attention and direct reply to you. Should you wish to follow up on this case, please contact Customer Service Desk quoting reference number T-233557-V8T6.
Regards,
Customer Service Desk, Tipperary County Council.

The Mill Road, over the past two years, as our readers will attest, has become the preferred route for increased car and heavy duty vehicles, same anxious to avoid Thurles town centre, because of major traffic delays caused by the recent upgrading of half of the Liberty Square town centre area.

**Evidence of vehicle tyre tracks on our half updated, expanded, footpaths on Liberty Square**, **Thurles**, **as vehicles attempt to find a non-existent parking or set down space.**

Picture above indicates that some of our Thurles traffic have already begun to avoid our lack of town centre parking spaces and now park on our overextended footpaths. It is this lack of set down spaces, which has driven most of our town centre traders, out of the Thurles town centre.

Last few remaining traders will certainly move out of Thurles town centre, if the Munster Hotel car park, situated on the junction of Cathedral Street and Kickham Street closes. The car park is used extensively and daily by local school buses, business consumers and those attending nearby Church services in the Cathedral. Closure is threatened in February next, in a dispute over failure to agree on a future rent, between the owner of Thurles towns greatest eyesore, (the Munster Hotel), and Tipperary County Council.