Politics « Thurles Information

Thurles Municipal District Council Continuing To Waste Money.

We raised the issue of areas of Thurles public lighting system being left burning day and night, here in the Municipal District of Thurles, back on April 24th, 2022. Read by clicking HERE.

Now some 15 weeks later, no action has been taken by councillors or local council administration staff.

Why are we actually continuing to pay the aforementioned employees and elected representatives to waste our property tax and other hard earned tax remittances?

Update On Work To Disregard Historic Convictions Of Gay & Bisexual Men.

Minister McEntee publishes update on work to disregard certain historic convictions of gay and bisexual men.

Final round of targeted public consultation to launch in coming weeks on key issues identified by Group.
Consultation will allow representative organisations and affected people to share their lived experience and inform Group’s final deliberations.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has today published a progress report from the Working Group to Examine the Disregard of Convictions for Certain Qualifying Offences Related to Consensual Sexual Activity between Men.

Publishing the progress report, Minister McEntee said:

“The Victorian-era laws which were repealed by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 caused immeasurable harm to generations of gay and bisexual men, criminalising and stigmatizing them simply because of their sexual orientation.

I am very conscious that nearly 30 years later, the damage that was caused by these laws continues to impact negatively on too many people’s lives. While this harm can never be fully undone, I am strongly committed to bringing to Government and publishing a scheme to disregard convictions for qualifying offences prior to decriminalisation in 1993.

I would like to thank the members of the Working Group for the important work which they are doing in considering a range of complex issues relating to the development of such a scheme. I have decided to publish this progress report in order to highlight the good progress made to date and to draw attention to the key issues identified which both the group and I believe would benefit from a final round of targeted public consultation prior to finalisation of our proposals.

I would encourage all those with an interest in this subject to read the progress report and to engage in the public consultation, which will launch in the coming weeks.”

The Working Group consists of representatives from the Department of Justice, An Garda Síochána, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), the Office of the Attorney General and three members of the LGBTI+ community with expertise in this area.

The report identifies progress made by the group to date on a number of key issues, as well as proposed next steps. Some of these key issues include identifying appropriate records, what happens to records, criteria for a conviction to be eligible for a disregard, and offences to be included under the disregard scheme.

Among the interim recommendations of the group is that the term ‘disregard’ replace the term ‘expungement’ in all relevant communications, pending final recommendations. An approach that involves entirely removing or destroying records of unjustly applied offences would not be considered appropriate due to it eliminating records and therefore evidence of such injustice. It would also frustrate the efforts of researchers and historians to explore the relevant topic in the future. For this reason, the Working Group strongly recommends a ‘disregard’ rather than ‘expungement’ (destruction) approach to relevant records.

The purpose of the proposed public consultation is to allow representative organisations and affected people to provide input, based on their lived experience, on a number of key issues identified by the Working Group as requiring further input from affected communities, which will inform the Group’s final deliberations, and ensure more effective policy making and implementation.

The public consultation will be launched in the coming weeks. As set out in Justice Plan 2022, the final report of the Working Group is scheduled for submission to the Minister by the end of Q3, 2022, subject to the conclusion and outcome of the consultation process.

Tipperary Farms To Get €1,000 To Prevent Future Fodder Shortage.

Minister for Agriculture Mr Charlie McConalogue has stated that he is finalising details of a funding plan, which he has brought to Cabinet for approval, aimed at supporting farmers, particularly those in the livestock sector.

The Minister said he wants to ensure that we grow enough grass over the course of this year, to ensure that we remain secure in terms of having enough fodder from next autumn to next spring.

He further stated that this is part of the process of responding to the challenge of there being war now on European soil, latter for the first time in over a generation, which could brings real challenges.

Livestock farmers will be able to avail of up to €1,000, under the new scheme, valued at €55 million, thus encouraging farmers to store sufficient fodder for animals past next winter.

The proposal being examined is to introduce a scheme which would incentivise beef and sheep farmers to grow hay or silage and pay up to a maximum of 10 hectares at €100 per hectare; thus ensuring farmers have the resilience to deal with any challenges that are there from the war in Ukraine.

The Agriculture Minister has already announced €20m in supports for pig farmers, €12m to encourage farmers to till extra land and €3m to support the horticulture sector.

Ongoing price increases in animal feed, fuel and fertiliser, together with other agriculture inputs, have seen beef and sheep farmers demanding help from the Government, with many saying the viability of their enterprises are severely threatened and will suffer income declines of between 13% and 25% in this current year.

St. Patrick’s Borstal Institution Tipperary.

Jail *(Gaol)* Gate, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.

Recently (April 20th 2022) we here at Thurles.Info featured an article entitled “Official Opening Of New “Horses of Hope” Equine Centre At Castlerea Prison”, which is expected to play an important part in the rehabilitation of prisoners, thus preventing same from reoffending on their eventual release. Read article HERE.

History recalls the setting up of a rather similar type of institution here in Co. Tipperary, same first established back in 1906.

Ireland’s first and indeed only Borstal institution, known as St. Patrick’s Borstal Institution was located in the centre of Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, as a place of detention for young male offenders, aged between 16 and 21. Most of whom were detained for offences including larceny, house-breaking, assault, animal theft and a low number of sexual crimes.

This Clonmel borstal institution provided boy inmates with continued support, same affected by the then existing “Borstal Association of Ireland”.
Following on from their release, the aforementioned association provided help and advice in finding employment, with this aftercare proving to be extremely successful, demonstrated by the small numbers of boys relapsing back into crime, following on from their release.

The Clonmel Borstal was first established following the recommendations of the 1895 “Report of the Departmental Committee on Prisons”, latter more generally known as the “Gladstone Committee”.

The institution was modelled on an innovative approach to young-offender reform, then being developed at a similar facility in the town of Borstal near Rochester, Kent, England, then begun in 1901.

This Clonmel, Co. Tipperary institution was designed to be “educational rather than punitive (intended punishment)”, but it was highly regulated, with a focus on routine, discipline and authority during its early years. However, in cases of mutiny or assaulting a prison officer, corporal punishment was officially available in the form of a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient’s bare buttocks, but only with the consent of a magistrate in attendance.

In Clonmel, to establish this borstal it was necessary to acquire all of the old prison grounds, with older or adult prisoners then serving sentences, transferred to other existing prison institutions.

The Prevention of Crime Act 1908 envisaged that youths aged between 16 and 21, who were charged with serious offences could undergo a programme of discipline intended to rehabilitate them, while segregating minors from the influence of adult prisoners.

The average number of inmates at Clonmel Borstal, at any given time, is understood to have been about 50 in number. Only about half of these had been sent directly by a court. The others were transferred by Ministerial order from their ordinary prisons. The regime in Clonmel allowed a level of trust to develop between the staff and detainees. At the discretion of the acting Governor, the boys could be allowed out into the town to seek employment.

The Clonmel borstal was an obvious recruiting ground for the British army. Magistrate Mr Justice Thomas Moloney, while attending the Spring 1919 Court of Assizes in Clonmel, paid tribute to some 424 inmates that he estimated were enlisted to fight. He further claimed that around seventy of these boys had made the “supreme sacrifice”.

In 1922, when the civil war began in Ireland, the institution was commandeered for military purposes and inmate boys were moved to Clogheen workhouse, Co. Tipperary.

By the mid-1950s the numbers of inmates had declined and with fewer coming from Dublin, it was decided to close the facility in Clonmel.
On December 1st 1956, 50 years after its initial foundation, the Irish borstal institution vacated Clonmel for the last time.

Hypocrisy Flourishes In 33rd Dáil.

Why do people vote for politicians they know to be liars?

Sadly, some of those involved in politics, for some unknown reason, develop a certain agility as liars and hypocrites.

The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word ‘hypokrites’, which means “a stage actor”, “a pretender”, “an interpreter from underneath”.

Stage actors in ancient Greek theatre houses always wore large masks to identify which character they were playing and so they “interpreted their play from underneath” their masks.

A hypocrite is easily recognised by their preaching one thing, and doing the exact opposite.

Using the video hereunder, watch possibly the two biggest hypocrites currently in our 33rd Dáil, taking up office space in Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
I refer to of course Irish Fianna Fáil politician Mr Darragh O’Brien and Irish Green Party politician Mr Malcolm Noonan. Both men can be viewed reading from what is known in the trade as an “idiot sheet”, while acting without masks in the video recording.

Here in Co. Tipperary, we have become very good at identifying hypocrites. Same daily preach similar phony sanctimony as contained in this video, while dabbling in self-serving politics, and who operate both inside and outside of Dáil Éireann.

In the video shown above, we watched as both named individuals claim to follow expressed moral rules and principles, while displaying sanctimonious affected superiority and false virtue posturing.

First, let’s question Mr Darragh O’Brien’s statement: “Heritage Ireland 2030 celebrates the diversity of Ireland’s heritage and the value placed on it by so many. It recognises the fundamental importance of heritage to our society, to our wellbeing and to our economy.
The Strategy is built around a vision for Ireland’s heritage, in all of its forms, built, natural, cultural, linguistic tangible and intangible, being at the very centre of local and national discourse, valued by all and cared for and protected for future generations”.

So Mr O’Brien, explain to the people of Thurles, why was the 176 year old, Great Famine Double Ditch, removed from Mill Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary earlier this year?
We had made contact with your party colleague Mr Jackie Cahill T.D and current government supporter Mr Michael Lowry T.D.
Surely, they must have discussed the importance of this rare piece of heritage with you; they being elected Co. Tipperary representatives anxious to benefit the slow and ever dwindling economy of their own home town of Thurles.

Moving on and trying not to ‘snigger’; let’s question the videoed statement of possibly the biggest hypocrite of all, Irish Green Party politician Minister Malcolm Noonan.

“The three themes of Heritage Ireland 2030 are “Communities”, “Leadership” and “Partnership”. – Published in statement by Minister Malcolm Noonan.

So why did it take two years Minister Noonan, for your office to reply to our emails?

“To protect and restore our species and habitats including peatlands to conserve and enhance our built heritage and monuments all of us must work together – Government, communities, stakeholder groups and citizens”. – Published in statement by Minister Malcolm Noonan.

So why did it take two years Minister Noonan, for your office to reply to our emails?

“We all have an active role to play as custodians of our heritage, not only for ourselves but for future generations too, and that is a core element of Heritage Ireland 2030.” – Published in statement by Minister Malcolm Noonan.

So why did it take two years Minister Noonan, for your office to reply to our emails?
Why did you allow the removal of the Great Famine, 176 year old, Double Ditch, YOU having been warned by us of its proposed destruction 2 years previously?

“Likewise, the right of everyone to engage in heritage is recognised in the strategy putting citizens and communities at the heart of how we manage it.
Our heritage is coming under all sorts of pressures largely brought about by our own actions and often inaction.
Climate change and biodiversity loss [E.G. Lady’s Well Walkway, Thurles] will be a key focus of Heritage Ireland over its lifetime, as we increase our ambition to restore nature and make our built heritage and monuments climate resilient.
Thanks are owed to the many people who gave so generously of their time and ideas in shaping Heritage Ireland and its vision.
Our shared hope is that we see real benefits for all as we work together to achieve this vision”. Published in statement by Minister Malcolm Noonan.