There was a time in the days gone by (the opening line of a 1970s Vicky Leandros Eurovision winning song) when people would heckle the daylights out of politicians as they tried to get their message across.
One such incident lodged itself in the folklore of Castleisland’s long and chequered associations with political discourse.
The incident took place on Main Street and the politician was in, what he clearly saw as, his rightful place above the people on the balcony of the Crown Hotel.
Even so, he wasn’t getting it all his own way as a group of shawlies heckled him relentlessly. He began several times, at the top of his voice and well before the arrival of amplification with the highly practiced: “Ladies and Gentlemen.”
… and Women with Shawls
On his fourth or fifth attempt he decided on a little addition: “Ladies and gentlemen and women with shawls,” – and that was it.
Castleisland then turned into something like what Kanturk became for Simon Harris last week.
There was no heckling of politicians while they and their team members were out on the hustings around here over the past few weeks.
But then there was no opportunity for the modern day shawlies to get stuck in as in days of yore.
Danny Healy Rae single handedly kept the ‘after Mass’ appeal for votes alive with a dark Saturday evening loud speaker address directly to the people here in Castleisland a couple of weeks ago.
Now, as they used to say around here: “It’s all over bar the shouting,” and there won’t be any of that either.
Congrats to the Elected
Congratulations to all the winning candidates and fair play and commiserations to those who didn’t get what they hoped for out of this election.
Castleisland is in urgent need of reform in how its vast accommodation potential in abandoned private houses and business premises on its main street are being looked at or more to the point being completely ignored.
On a journey between Kilkenny and Galway one grey day last May I was struck by the sheer level of abandonment and dereliction in small towns and villages along the way – and more so by the contrast between them and bigger towns and cities with their American style shopping centres.
Between Castleisland and Rathmore
Likewise, on a journey between Castleisland and Rathmore in the famed Sliabh Luachra area last year.
The amount of life that’s been drained from the area is clearly reflected in the depressing numbers of once fine houses throughout the countryside. With that in mind it can be hard to fathom how there is a housing crisis in the Ireland of today.
You can understand the argument that the needs of once-off housing in the countryside are greater and more expensive than town and city based dwellings.
But all those abandoned dwellings were highly self sufficient, once-off houses in their prime – many of which are now neglected and beyond redemption.
Cheap Irish Homes
There are many others, however, which could be salvaged – as we’ve seen from the eye opening and excellent RTÉ programme Cheap Irish Homes with presenters Maggie Molloy and Kieran McCarthy.
In the run-up to this election there was so much talk about housing and ‘homes’ that we can only hope that there will be a follow up of equal intensity. A policy that will allow our towns and villages to be freed up to do what they always did before the choking hand of bureaucracy darkened their doors.
There was an urban accommodation revival and grant scheme introduced over a decade ago and it caused a great stir of excitement locally with many locals keenly applying.
Complicated Forms and Paperwork
However it turned out to be hopelessly mired and stifled in the same kind of bureaucracy – even for people from whom filling complicated forms and paperwork was a part of daily life.
Before that, in the early 1990s the population of Castleisland embraced the Urban Renewal Scheme for Smaller Towns which was launched by the then Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal, Bobby Molloy, TD.
The scheme was aimed at ‘putting the heart back into smaller towns throughout Ireland.’
Never Got the Chance to Develop
It also aimed to highlight the need to counter the trend where town dwellers were moving to the countryside. It aspired to enhance the town environment and make it a more attractive place to live. Well it didn’t and it never got a chance to develop and it wasn’t taken seriously by those who simply didn’t practice what they preached.
It would be great to think that the people we elected at the weekend would keep this in mind and to the fore in policy making when they take their seats in Dáil Éireann and maybe in government in the new year or in the nearer future. .
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