Landowner Basil Phelan (right) in discussion with the Gardaí at the illegal campsite.
| Source: Eyewitness | Date: 5th April 2005 | reporter: PeeJay |
A contingent of some 25 - 35 caravans and associated transit vans and 4x4's arrived in Basil's field at Cornagower West this afternoon. They seem to be mainly from the Rathkeale area of Co. Limerick, but Dublin and Kildare registered caravans were also arriving at 3pm.
Gardaí and some bemused local residents were quickly at the scene.
| Source: Wicklow People | Date: 7th April 2005 | reporter: Lynn GLANVILLE |
A group of over 70 Travellers moved onto Basil Phelan's former pitch and putt course in Brittas Bay on Tuesday evening. They had already spent last weekend camped in a car park in Greystones Harbour and claim they will leave Brittas Bay on Saturday to go to a wedding in Wales.
It is understood that the Travellers broke locks on the gate into the field having tried unsuccessfully to overcome automatic barriers into the county council car park across the road. Gardaí had been alerted that the group of Travellers was in the area and were present when Mr Phelan arrived on Tuesday afternoon.
A group of men approached the well-known landowner and offered him €100 per caravan per night. The Travellers, with more than 20 caravans and vans, reportedly intend to stay in Brittas Bay until Saturday. Mr Phelan refused the sum and said he had asked them to leave his land. He said he was not asked for any money by the Travellers to persuade them to vacate his property. Local Gardaí explained that Mr Phelan will have to apply for an injunction to force the Travellers from his land.
This group of Travellers is known as the 'Rathkeale Rovers' and visits Wicklow at about the same time every year. The majority are believed to be from Limerick but there are some from Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The group arrived in Greystones on Saturday and occupied the seafront car park. Gardaí issued a summons on Monday and they moved the next day.
They then attempted to find a site in the newly developed Charlesland area, just south of Greystones. Builders there blocked the accesses to the various building sites with cars and construction equipment.
| Source: Wicklow People | Date: 7th April 2005 | reporter: Lynn GLANVILLE |
AGAINST the background of a group of Travellers moving into a Greystones car park at the weekend, Wicklow County Council passed the Traveller Accommodation Programme 2005-2008 on Monday.
The vote, which saw a number of councillors express concern at illegal encampments and a perceived lack of responsibility on behalf of Travellers, was carried with 14 in favour, three against, four abstaining and three absent.
Cllr. Derek Mitchell told the meeting that there were 15 Travellers' caravans parked at Greystones harbour.
"The whole policy seems to be that we give them lots of rights but the present law is not able to make Travellers responsible for their behaviour towards their neighbours and the community. I and another councillor put our cars across the entrance of the car park but we were told that they would be capsized in the harbour if we did not move,' he said.
He said that the settled community was outraged that Travellers were given all these rights but took no responsibility.
Cllr. Vincent Blake noted that during the life of the plan, the aim was to accommodate 82 Travellers and that one house in every 16 local authority houses built was to be allocated to a Travelling family. He asked that that figure be applied throughout the county.
Cllr. Jimmy O'Shaughnessy said he would find it hard to support the programme. There was no proposal to deal with Travellers in the Greystones area, he said, yet there was a proposal to build a further three houses in Barndarrig where there were no indigenous Travellers, he maintained. He said they were being pushed out of north Wicklow and into the east area.
Cllr. Pat Doran said that the council was doing nothing about an illegal encampment near Carnew. He said the families in question had been offered houses in a new estate but had refused to take them.
'Are we going to sit up and do something to protect the people who are paying their dues, whose cars are taxed and who aren't using red diesel in their vans or are we going to put up with them bullying us?' he asked. 'I'm delighted to hear there are problems in Greystones. Finally they know what we are going through.'
Cllr. Tom Fortune complained that there was nothing in the plan about how illegal encampments were to be handled. He said he witnessed a situation at the station car park at Sea Road in Kilcoole on Saturday evening where 10 vans attempted to move in. He said it was a potentially serious situation.
'This gives the Travelling community a bad name. Now they're in Greystones. Where are they going to go from there?' he asked. 'I see nothing in the plan to address that.'
Cllr. Kathleen Kelleher said councillors were being asked to adopt the programme but that it had to be a two way street and both sides had to honour the agreement. She pleaded with the Travelling community to give something back.
Cllr. Tommy Cullen called on whichever councillor proposed the adoption of the plan to name the locations of the proposed halting sites. He said he would not vote in the dark and said that the matter should be clarified. He reiterated his claim that County Wicklow was seen as a soft touch by Travellers as the council did not enforce the law.
Cllr. Nicky Kelly pointed out that if the councillors failed to adopt the programme, the county manager would have the power to do so.
Cllr. Pat Vance said that local area councillors should be involved in decisions effecting their areas. He added that the councillors in any area should be responsible for Travellers indigenous to the area. He said that transitional sites were important to deal with the 'cavalcade' situations.
Cllr. Sylvester Bourke pointed out that situations such as illegal dumping prevailed in the settled community also. He proposed adopting the plan.
Cllr. George Jones observed that all the councillors were being asked to do was to replace the old plan with the new one. There was nothing new in it. He said the council had failed miserably to address the problems and must try harder under the new plan.
Cllr. Anne Ferris condemned comments from some of the councillors, which she said, almost amounted to incitement to hatred. She said there were faults on both sides but they had to get on with the programme.
Chairman John Byrne seconded Cllr. Bourke's proposal saying that the programme was modest, reasonable and fair. He hoped they could meet their targets.
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