Carpark saga has origins in the 80’s

THE HEADLINES ARE 30 YEARS OLD BUT LITTLE HAS CHANGED SINCE 1985

EMOTIONS ran high among residents and public representatives of Sligo Corporation in the mid-1980’s over the use of Connaughton Road car park as a halting site by traveller families.

As Sligo County Council steps up efforts to reclaim the car park this summer and the public wonders how it has gone on for so long, we take a look at the players and the events that shaped a saga that was to last for three decades.

“CONNAUGHTON Road car park was rightly described as a laughing stock at a meeting of Sligo Corporation this week.

“Cllr Matt Lyons, a trader in the area who ought to have first-hand knowledge of what’s going on, says the car park as it exists at present is a waste of public money and stands as a monument to bad management.”

The above excerpt from The Sligo Champion was published on 14 th August 1987, almost 30 years ago to the day. Cllr Lyons words ring even truer today than they did three decades ago.

A trawl through our newspaper archives from the 1980’s shows this newspaper began covering what was to become the saga of Connaughton Road car park from as early as 1985.

The issue featured regularly at the monthly meetings of the then Sligo Corporation, or ‘ the Corpo’ as it was known:

One angy Mall resident sent a dead rat to the ‘Corpo’ in 1989 as published in this newspaper in March of that year.

Headlines about Connaughton Road published in The Sligo Champion 1985-1988.