Thurles Information

Budgets don’t balance themselves, it takes fiscal discipline, and those whom we elect to rule over us must show us fiscal discipline or resign.

It was in mid-March of 2022, when the now retired Fianna Fáil Cllr. Mr Seamus Hanafin, backed by his devious officials and council colleagues, collaborated to destroyed yet another piece of Thurles town’s rich history; namely the Great Famine Double Ditch constructed in 1846.
This Double Ditch was destroyed to provide an inner relief road, which to-date since its conception 8 years ago, has never received funding, despite, up until last November 2024, two Dáil Éireann TD’s Mr M. Lowry (Ind.) and Mr J. Cahill (F.F.), both supporting the outgoing government; being resident within the town itself.

Because of the existing medieval streets, within Thurles, for almost 50 years now, the town has sought government funding for a ring road, in an effort to remove at least some of the current heavy goods vehicles, forced to pass through, on an hourly basis, but alas, to little avail.

Following the obvious embarrassment and annoyance experienced by Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Mr Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Mr Simon Harris in recent days, all rooted in Deputy Michael Lowry’s attempts at ‘king making’, it is now unlikely that the present coalition government will be gifting ring road funding to Thurles in the immediate future.

Almost to the date, now, just 3 years later, we revisit this area where this now destroyed Great Famine Double Ditch once existed, known by some as “Hanafin’s Folly”.

Do take the time to view the video hereunder, which demonstrates the total failure by our local councillors and officials to handle what should have been the simplest of tasks. You also may wish to scream.

Report on our findings:

• Because of this councils love of biodiversity on the banks of the river Suir, the same passion was not evident in the spraying of a 1.5 acre site north of the Double Ditch as their sign indicates. The newly formed lake is proof of the River Suir flood plane now percolating through the soil, blocked by the no longer existent Double Ditch, draining the weed killer chemicals used, leaching same into the river Suir, via the river Drish.
• Someone is using the Whitethorn as their source of winter fuel, while Willow trees are growing up through the tarmacadam.
• Then there is the never ending parade of abandoned supermarket trolleys; I counted 21 in all .
• Note from the video the newly erected fencing cut in numerous places and the last surviving piece of the great famine, 1865, erected wall, broken down to make steps.
• The new tarmacadam, right the way along, is coated in leaf debris, plastic litter and overgrown briar foliage. Wait until leaves return on foliage.
• Note the domestic waste, numerous plastic council bollards, burnt mattresses spray cans and no longer required clothing items.
• Note the car seats, potato peelings, bed clothes, metal rubbish bin, abandoned fridges, bicycle frames, remains of a wheelchair, rubber car tyres and bicycle tyres.
• Note the old fencing torn down to erect the new and never removed, a fire extinguisher cover, numerous plastic toys and finally a self-standing, metal, County Council road sign, which we first identified sitting here over 5 years ago.

For what was promised to be a place where local residents and visitors could exercise and take leisurely walks, we find that same has now become a non-contested rubbish dump and a graveyard for supermarket trolleys.
We had asked Ms Sharon Scully (Thurles District Administrator), in August 20th, 2024 to contact Supermarkets with regards to their failure to retrieve supermarket trolleys from the River Suir. As was expected, daring to make such a suggestion, same was observed as ‘contempt for our betters’ and thus went unanswered, with thousands of Euro’s of taxpayer funding now wasted.

Back in February 2024, Littleton based Fianna Fáil County Counsellor, Mr Sean Ryan, in a vote catching pre-local election exercise, notified local press and radio, quote; “Tipperary County Council is ready to hit the ground running in the use of technology to tackle illegal dumping, Tipperary County Council already has the technology at its disposal – it already has the drones, it already has the cameras. They are ready to go”.

With regards the area of “Hanafin’s Folly”, we report that most definitely drones have remained grounded and camera shutters have remained closed, while the same re-elected Mr Ryan collected for himself, for the final 3 months of 2023, a salary of €13,899.83. The expenses paid by the taxpayer, to the inactive Mr Ryan, during that same 3 month period in 2023, included €1,694.28 for hotel accommodation, while attending 3 conferences [ (1) Elected Member Security, (2) Road Safety and (3) Local Authorities Members Association (LAMA) ] held at the 4 Star Rose Hotel, Tralee, (21/10/2023 €538.85); the 4 Star Clayton Hotel, Galway (18th November 2023 €414.11) and the 3 Star Ard Rí House Hotel, Tuam, (25th & 26th October 2023 €741.28) respectively.

Note: All Thurles Municipal District Council Councillors and their Officials were informed about this unofficial dumping site, first on October 28th, 2019. Please Read HERE.
Absolutely no action was taken to rectify the situation within the past, over five year period, where the taxpayers funded our 9 Thurles Municipal District Councillors to the tune of at least €1,620.000 in wages. (God knows what we paid our inept officials on top of that figure).

Note: Details on salaries and expenses paid to ‘double jobbing’ and inactive local Councillors in 2023, are made available to the public, by browsing HERE.

As Thurles Municipal District Administrator, Ms Sharon Scully must now:–
(1) Visit the area.
(2) Debate this issue with her colleagues.
(3) Make arrangements to rectify the issue immediately.
(4) Apologise to the residents of Thurles for her oversight.

The taxpayer deserve accountability as taxes continue to increase, much of it used to fund stupid projects dreamed up by Tipperary County Council officials.