Thurles Information

In the words of talented singer / songwriter Bruce Springsteen (Album “Wrecking Ball.”)

“The banker man grows fatter, the working man grows thin,
It’s all happened before and it’ll happen again,

Rural Tipperary Dogs Must Continue To Eat Of The Crumbs Which Fall From Their Masters’ Table

A submission request, seeking the repatriation of the Derrynaflan Hoard back to its home in Thurles Co. Tipperary has possibly fallen on deaf ears, or maybe it is a case of local politicians & Tipperary Councillors being ‘deaf in one ear and unable to hear with the other.’

Either way rural townships, like Thurles, are struggling desperately, with unemployment the single greatest stumbling block to local consumer spending.

Nationally “The Gathering 2013,” was an excellent government proposal, however the policy of continuing to fund & attract visitors to the Gateways of Ireland only; i.e. Our coastal towns & cities like Tralee, Galway, Limerick, Dublin, Waterford etc, at the expense of midland counties, is having a major effect on our Irish heartland communities.

These local communities in midland counties, like Tipperary, are becoming dangerously despondent, cynical, unenthusiastic & lifeless. Events designed to attract & continuing to be run by a remaining few well meaning & strong willed committees in midland areas, now fail to draw previously expected support, mainly because of the total lack of ‘public purse,’ funding being generously doled out only to what are described as the “Gateways to Ireland.”

(1) During the life time of our last government, over €1million was spent to attract British tourists to Dublin, by the quango previously known as the Board of Dublin Tourism now re-employed as Fáilte Ireland employees with a similar Dublin Tourism only aim.

(2) In 2013, €5 million was laid aside for Marlborough Street Bridge in Dublin, covered by the NTA (National Transport Authority), through funding provided by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

(3) In January last Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan announced that Dublin’s National Gallery is to get a €20 million upgrade, thus forming a key part of the plans for the 1916 centenary commemorations in Dublin.

(4) North Tipp Labour Minister Alan Kelly announced, last February, €5 million in funding for sustainable transport projects, for guess where, yes Dublin; €2.6 million to expand the Dublin Bikes scheme as far as Kilmainham, €1.5 million for improvements to the Thomas St. / James’s Street bus-lane to shorten bus journeys from Ballyfermot and the west of the City, €250,000 to extend the existing Chapelizod – Heuston Liffey Cycle Route as far as the City Centre, €120,000 to plan an upgraded cycle-lane from the Blackhorse Bridge down Davitt Road as far as Portobello, €60,000 for pedestrian improvements in Inchicore Village &  €40,000 for traffic management on Inchicore Road. These funds come as part of a €23 million allocation for the Dublin City Council area, which also includes funding for street resurfacing across the city, designing a new cycle network, and other measures that will benefit all areas of Dublin.

The list of funding for our capital city is endless, including constant job announcements,  thus demonstrating that our Dublin must be taken care of as a number one priority, while not so much as a ‘red cent,’ is to be spent in promoting much of Tipperary & Thurles. In relation to Thurles, just one example of incompetence can be found by Checking HERE. Note Discover Ireland has conveniently forgotten the Thurles Butler connection.

The Derrynaflan Hoard and its arrival back home to Thurles, is now a must, for reasons already discussed HERE and sent to Minister Leo Varadkar in December 2012. (Five Months ago.)  Had a decision been made, we would now have an attraction for which the current non-existent bus tour operator would immediately have included in their daily itineraries. Events could have been organised around its arrival and we could have worked together to create some small much needed employment on the back of its repatriation.

Obviously the return of these wonderful pieces of Tipperary owned Irish heritage will generated a certain resistance by others, in particular those whose economies stand to gain most at Tipperary’s expense, namely Dublin. The urgency with regard to a government decision in the repatriation of the Derrynaflan Hoard, back to Thurles, is now paramount to our town’s very existence, which has seen 14 businesses fail in just 12 months on Friar Street, Thurles alone.

Since our local elected representatives appear helpless, you our readers can assist by emailing the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton at minister@djei.ie.  Remember a simple “Copy & Paste,” of the link (http://www.thurles.info/2013/04/20/thurles-gis-a-job-minister-bruton) emailed to the Minister’s Office will suffice. Alternatively, share this Blog on your Facebook Time Line.

If you have a favourite Minister you would like to contact, chances are, you can find all their Email addresses HERE.

Ministers, we also would like to be in a position to pay the heavy burden of taxation your government have levied on us, Taxes for debts brought about not by us, but by greedy Developers & Bankers, latter with which most of us had little business connections.

Note also the ransom being sought for the return of our property (€100,000 – See Noel Coonan’s correspondence in video.) is €33,000 less than the cost of sending Minister Phil Hogan & his advisor’s, jetting from Durban in South Africa to Shanghai in China and Rio de Janiero in Brazil, where he clocked up bills of €133,000 since he took office in March 2011. His 181,000km round trips in the past two years are the equivalent of a trip halfway to our moon.

Silence is no longer an option for Thurles & County Tipperary.