Please show rural Sligo in a more appealing light

Madame Editor,

I feel very strongly about the article you published on page 16 of this weeks’ Sligo Champion on East Sligo, Geevagh by Sorcha Crowley.

As a resident I feel the article has shown Geevagh in a very negative image and will not help our area with investment, grants, or encourage people to move here.

I am a proud Geevagh resident and must point out some facts and points that were not printed in said article.

1. Why was no member of the Geevagh Local Area Development ( GLAD) contacted to comment or were they?

2. Why were two prominent Sein Féin activists the only people quoted and one of those Pat Davey, does not even live in Geevagh ( fact).

3. Please find out if the local community activist Mrs Maura Cullen in Paddys bar who all locals are aware knows what’s going on in this area was even interviewed who along with the GLAD committee has done and continues to do Trojan good work in this area.

4. Why was it printed that Mr John Deignan was credited for being behind a recent successful traffic calming measures.

As your newspaper I’m sure the Sligo Champion has a reporter at meetings of Sligo County Council they should be well aware that two councillors Martin Baker and Dara Mulvey have been working on these traffic calming issues along side GLAD and Geevagh residents were told that € 20k was announced for these works before the Sinn Féin petition was even submitted to Sligo County Council. Cllrs Baker and Mulvey have been working along side GLAD and Geevagh residents on numerous other issues in this area, i. e new road works opposite church, landslide repairs, pot hole repairs, hedge cutting etc but none of these Cllrs were even quoted in this article? Or were they even contacted?

Please try to show rural Sligo in a more appealing light as there is a lot of good things in this area and this article was very negative to read. Thank you. Mr P. Mitchell Geevagh Co. Sligo. Editor’s Note: This series focuses on giving a voice to ‘ the man on the street’ - people not normally heard, such as rural business owners and farmers . The two men featured ( who as private citizens and farmers in the Geevagh and Sooey areas had views relevant to the series on South East Sligo) were not the only ones spoken to - Jim Clancy of Geevagh’s Men’s Shed was also interviewed. We are satisfied the article was factually correct - Editor.