1985

“Residents are seething, Cllr Stephen McDonagh is angry, the County Manager (Mr Paul Byrne) is silent because legal action is pending and all because of allegations that itinerants parked along Connaughton Road are using back gardens of residents as toilets,” wrote reporter Gerry Ryle after one such meeting in 13th September 1985.

On the one hand, you had Cllr McDonagh saying he had been informed by an Inspector from the North Western Health Board that conditions in the area constituted a health hazard.

On the other, Fr Christy Jones (before he became Bishop of Elphin), of the Itinerant Settlement Committee, explained that it would be very hard to expect the travellers in question to move from Conaughton Road.

He explained their presence there by saying that they had been driven from Donegal by the recent trouble there and feared for their lives if they were moved to the more vulnerable and isolated Ballyfree halting site - which had been provided by Sligo Corporation.

Fr Jones said the thing to do was to pro- vide toilet facilities for the travellers in or around their halting site in Connaughton Road. “They are too frightened to go to Ballyfree,” he said.

The then County Manager Paul Byrne told the meeting that court action was pending concerning the illegal parking of the caravans by five families - because of this he would make no comment.

Cllr McDonagh told this newspaper he wanted to see the travellers “shifted” out of the town altogether to Ballyfree which the Corporation had spent money on.

The County Manager said he would take the health hazard issue up with the Health Board.

The Mayor at the time, Cllr Michael Carroll was even more vocal at a subsequent meeting.

He said that too many people were talking on behalf of the travellers who were “living outside the law and getting away with it.”

He stressed he had nothing against travellers but they had to remember other people had rights too.

Cllr Matt Lyons said he had asked some time ago of the Corporation if they were going to take any action against those who illegally parked in car parks throughout the town and since then nothing had happened.

The public at large were beginning to wonder if the Corporation were really serious about tackling the problem.

He did not thing that this sort of “carry-on” would be tolerated in any other town or county in the country and he didn’t see why the people of Sligo should have to tolerate it, we reported in September 1985.

The same month, Sligo Corporation Town Clerk, Mr John McNabola, confirmed it was intended to take court action against the travellers.

Acting County Manager Brendan Byrne said they couldn’t anticipate the outcome of such action.

In October 1985, a deputation of residents from The Mall were refused permission to ask what steps the Corporation was taking to tackle the problem.

The County Manager Paul Byrne said a case was due before Sligo Circuit Court on November 19 th 1985 and any public discussion might prejudice the case.