Fait accompli for O'Connell Park
The untying of the knot that was Mitchelstown's O’Connell Park for the past fifteen years, is a deed fait accompli, as at 4.30pm on Tuesday of this week the park was formally signed over to three trustees, paving the way for the facility to be officially open to the public, writes Marian Roche.
The 15-year saga came to a close as the outer perimeter of the park was signed over to three trustees, namely Sean Finn, Therese Horgan and Marie Sheehan Condon on Tuesday afternoon. This will be a temporary measure, as in the long-term the park will need to be managed by a company with a board in place.
However, the park will be temporarily bolted shut as the moment the sign-over was complete the thorny and ever-present issue of insurance cropped up. Speaking at Mitchelstown Community Council’s AGM on Tuesday night, chairman Sean Finn reassured people that this would be a very short-term measure, and he was confident that it could be ‘sorted by the weekend’, saying “If it’s insured at 10am in the morning, it will be open at 10am in the morning”.
In the meantime, he had advised all clubs using the pitch that temporarily, they will not have access. This is because to reach the pitch means crossing the land that belongs to the park. The pitch within the park belongs to Mitchelstown GAA and as such is a separate entity.
DOING THINGS RIGHT
The park is not signed over to Mitchelstown Community Council, though the announcement was made at the council’s AGM. Long-term, once the paperwork is signed, the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted, Mr Finn said that relevant stakeholder groups would be gathered together to make plans for the park. Several of those at the meeting agreed that, although to temporarily close the park is a nuisance, that after 15 years, it is important that things are done right.
The 9.5 acre park was first purchased in 1928 from Colonel Alex King-Harman for £275. The new park was named O’Connell Park, in honour of Monsignor David O’Connell, parish priest of Mitchelstown from 1939-1950, who was later a trustee.
In October 2011, a 0.53 hectare portion of land on the northeast edge of the park was acquired by Cork County Council. The council declined to say how much they paid for the land, deeming it of a ‘commercially sensitive nature’.