New Garda station and site for the McGinley family should progress at the same time
So the Garda Barracks in Sligo is not fit for purpose, well neither is the Travellers’ site at Connaughton Road in Sligo. The Garda Barracks is a work place, a building which has outgrown its location.
It was OK fifty years ago when every new recruit was spotted on arrival by the Mercy Convent students and every new EI car in town noted, but now when the building has been expanded tenfold, and the Garda cars and vans are all over the road, the Barracks is not fit for purpose and a new ultra-suitable site / location must be found. Fifty years ago the site at Connaughton Road was a dump, a vacant plot. I’m not sure which came first the Travellers camp or the car park but while no improvements were made for the families confined to this little miserable plot which was and still is behind everything in the town, a car park was provided and is available to the public at Connaughton Road.
But we the public also want the little space where the Travellers have lived and survived for the past fifty years. 50/34/28 what difference does it make they may have Squatters Right’s / Adverse Possession’.
The Traveller’s caravans, cars and living conditions are all confined to this little miserable spot for 34 years because they weren’t housed as a family at a time as required which would have avoided the present tragedy, and that was our fault as we objected.
No one likes words like Guantanamo bay or Ku Klux Klan. Imagine if Health and Safety or concerned citizens arrived at the Sligo Barracks, clamped all the Gardai vehicles or towed them away, entered the building with new locks for all the doors, and ordered all the personnel to move out until a suitable site/location could be found because the building was unfit for purpose WORK not LIVING accommodation. Whose head would roll for that? That is what we are doing with the Traveller’s at Connaughton Road.
I bet the sites rejected by the Travellers will not be offered to the Gardai.
The Scouts are out searching for an ultra-suitable site/location for a new Garda Barracks for Sligo but the existing Barracks will live and work in peace until the last detail on the new unit is in place, then and not until then will the Gardai be expected to move. While these Scouts are out no doubt they will vet several prime sites every one of which would be suitable for a Traveller site. The two projects should progress together.
The Traveller site with so many families should take priority over the Barrack which is only a work place, and we should all back off Connaughton Road and leave the Travellers in peace until suitable purpose built accommodation, in a nicely located place, is ready for them to live in.
The site at Connaughton Road should be developed properly for the families who wish to remain. Strictly speaking they may have obtained Adverse Possession / Squatters Right’s and they should not be moved out.
I bet the Gardai will retain interest in the present Station because of its location too.
Yours Sincerely
Mary Kelly-White, Collooney, Co. Sligo.