Security firms being hired for weddings

July 2002

Private security firms are being called in by wedding parties at Barntown’s historic Pugin church because people feel intimidated by the presence of some of a group of Travellers who have set up a camp in the church car park.

Parish officials said people felt intimidated by the presence of some of the group and they were hiring security men for weddings and posting guards during the services at the church, which for the first time in 150 years, is being locked outside of normal service hours.

When they were gently approached by local parish representatives, some of the Travellers reportedly said that they wanted £400 for each of their caravans before they would be prepared to move.

Councillor Phil Roche said the community of Barntown had never harboured racist attitudes towards the Travelling community, members of which are integrated with children from the settled community at the local national school.

‘But for the first time in 150 years, our church is locked all day, and to me that’s totally unacceptable.

‘What I find most offensive is the fact that some of them seem to have no respect for the hallowed ground of our church and graveyard. Some of them are even using the grounds as a toilet. Our Patron is being held next Sunday and people are most upset about this desecration of our church grounds,’ she said.

‘I can understand the concerns of settled residents,’ said Murt Flynn, a member of the voluntary Travellers Accommodation Forum, but he said if Wexford County Council had supplied transient facilities as required under the Traveller Accommodation Act, this problem wouldn’t be happening.

‘If there is law-breaking, it is a matter for the gardaí,’ said Mr Flynn, who planned to approach parish officials to see if a way forward could be found.

Residents have appealed to the gardaí to move the Travellers ahead of the Patron, but the guards said the matter was a civil one and it was up to the church to get a court order.

‘It’s a civil matter in that they are on private property,’ a spokesman said.