The claiming of Lola as ours with a plaque
IT ’ S hard t o ge t public s er vi ce s t aff these days. Don’ t talk to Tom Brennan about i t. The Council’s Senior Engineer is blue in the face searching every highway and by-way for an engineer. Can’t be got! They’re just not out there! And even when you do fill a panel, half of them don’t bother to show up!
For a man with the solemn composure of a consultant giving you Very Bad News, this was his equivalent of letting rip.
In the firing line at City Hall last week were six members of the Borough of District of Sligo. The next councillor to ask him for a road to be resurfaced would be flung a high-vis vest and a bucket of tar.
But the darkest hour is always before the dawn. The one ray of light to pierce the November gloom came from the N4-N15 Sligo Urban Improvement Scheme (SUIS). Three rays of light in fact; red, amber and green. Seven slides into his PowerPoint, Acting Senior Executive Engineer Kevin Crawley finally saw heads jerk up.
A new Urban Traffic Control System is going to be installed at thirteen junctions along the Inner Relief Road by next July. Phrases like “state-of-the-art”, “Smart City” and “intelligent” ricocheted off the chamber walls.
There would be “intelligent decisions” from this “intelligent” transportation system of smart traffic lights. Best of all, the traffic signals would “speak to each other.” What they might actually say one can only imagine. But that’s more than you can say for certain councillors at the moment.
Come to think of it, the traffic lights may have more in common with councillors than you might think: they both give the green light, regularly see red, are often out of order, can get the public revved up, and occasionally, people run them. Indeed, serious consideration is now being given to training them in as stand-ins for absentee councillors at meetings. The Sligo Champion has already put in a request for interviews once they’re settled in. The only way is SUIS for Sligo.
Over at the Sligo-Drumcliffe Municipal meeting meanwhile, things took a decidedly racy turn over Lola and the Monk. Councillor Donal Gilroy wants to commemorate in 2021 the 200 th anniversary of the birth of Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, aka the pride of Grange, the erstwhile showgirl Lola Montez. Oh and the 1500 th anniversary of the birth of St. Colmcille, who was not born in Grange.
His disputed (and illegal) copy of a holy manuscript and a row over a hurling match no less, escalated into the Battle of the Book and the deaths of 3,000 people. Despite admitting that the man may not have even visited Sligo, it was enough for Donal that
Colmcille got his penance at Inismurray. The Council officials didn’t have to be asked twice - they’ve already been chatting with their colleagues on Donegal County Council and plans are afoot for a Colmcille-style jamboree to commemorate the monk’s life and work.
And as for Lola? Let’s just say, she didn’t settle for famine-era drudgery in Ireland and leave it at that. S
he was allegedly born in Grange but seems to have gotten out of it as fast as possible, as in, before she learned to walk. She may get a plaque on a wall. “This lady,” blushed Donal, choosing his words carefully, could still lure the Germans, despite having long since finished in the business.
A plaque should do it - just putting it out there. “She was born here. She wasn’t born anywhere else. Limerick tried to claim her but she’s ours,” said a breathless Donal.
Anything that puts Sligo on the map, said Cllr Marie Casserly. Trouble is, it would appear that Limerick isn’t the only place laying claim to our Lola. We’re up against Calcutta, Geneva, Montrose and Seville and about a dozen other cities scattered around the world. Not only that, but there is also some confusion over the year of her birth, with some sources citing 1818, not 1821.
The question now is, would a plaque on a wall satisfy someone who once horsewhipped a newspaper Editor over an article and invited gold miners to shower nuggets at her feet? Our Lola blazed quite the trail among the 19 th century demi-monde of Europe, Australia and America, seducing composers, writers and King Ludwig I of Bavaria no less.