Travellers must be respected
Madam Editor
Coach Drivers want designated car parking spaces while it seems Sligo just wants to banish the Travellers from the town.
The parking problem is new while the Traveller families have been at Connaughton Road for thirty years. That must be dealt with legally and with respect.
The traffic miss-management in Sligo Town is atrocious. Even the locals are never sure whether the streets are open / closed / one-way / or dug up for work let alone visiting Coach Drivers.
Sligo City is not a CONE. All the traffic does not have to pass through Connaughton Road. The newer Car Park at Adelaide Street, situated on the Dual Carriageway, serving the South and the North, which was established to elevate traffic congestion through Sligo City is far more suitable for parking. It is closer to the City Centre than the CIE Bus and Railway Stations. Where is the City Centre nowadays anyway?
Fifty years ago it was O’Connell Street with the GPO and Woolworth’s two-way traffic and a good road. Sligo has no Centre now. Strictly speaking Connaughton Road Car Park is more convenient to the Hospital than it is to the GPO, and strictly speaking again the Travellers and their Halting Site on Connaughton Road, have nothing to do with Tourists and their Coaches. We are just using the Coaches as an excuse to get rid of the Travellers.
Let us stop treating them as we would not like to be treated ourselves.
We can start with compassion and real help.
Yours Sincerely Mary Kelly-White Collooney.