From: William Finnerty
To: Police Commissioner
Pat Byrne (Chief Officer, Garda Siochana)
Cc: Environment Protection Agency
; An Taisce ; Bord Pleanala
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 10:50 AM
Subject: Protection of ancient monuments in East Galway.
Dear Commissioner Byrne,
On April 14th last I suddenly noticed (while driving in the area) that major changes
had recently been made to a very interesting looking field beside the Hill of Grange
(which is within a mile or so from where I live).
The Hill of Grange (near the village of New Inn) is listed under the reference numbers
3383 (page 310), and 4013 (page 423) in the "Archaeological Inventory of County
Galway" (ISBN reference: 0-7076-6179-X). This book is produced by Duchas,
and published in 1999 by The Government Stationary Office.
Later that day (i.e. April 14th), I visited Loughrea Garda Barracks at around 6 p.m.
and (in effect) asked the Gardai to find out if the very recent field
alterations near Grange were made in accordance with the laws laid down in the
National Monuments Act, 1930 (and the subsequent Amendments to this Principal Act).
As I recall it, the person I spoke with at Loughrea Barracks told me his name was Garda
John Keena; that my visit that day (April 14th) was logged under the reference number
1220; and that the matter of the field alterations would be investigated. Since then,
I have not heard anything from Loughrea Garda Barracks
On the evening of Friday April 20th I had a conversation with the local Garda for New
Inn village (Mr.Tom Kenny). He informed me that he had not heard
anything about my visit to Loughrea Barracks the previous Saturday. However, and as I
recall our conversation, he said that he would inquire at Loughrea the following day, and
that he would drop in to see me on the following Monday or Tuesday (i.e. April 23rd
or 24th 2001). To date he has not called, and neither have I heard anything at
all from him.
As I believe I mentioned to Garda Tom Kenny on April 20th, I do have photographs of the
field in question: which were taken before and after the alterations referred to above;
and I have in the meantime placed copies of two of these photographs on the semi-private
www page address provided immediately below:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/grange.htm
For the purpose of drawing attention to the fact that there are other ongoing
environmental type problems in the New Inn area at present (apart from the one at Grange),
I also (on April 14th) handed Garda John Keena a printed copy of the Email
dated April 12th 2001 to Mr.Tom Kavanagh of Galway County Council. The full text of the
Email in question is reproduced at the following www page address:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/gcc.htm
The first paragraph of the Email to Mr.Kavanagh (at the www address immediately above)
refers to a new £30 million pound ESB project involving large pylons and overhead
cables: which appear to run very close to, and/or over, several ancient monuments (of
one kind or another) in the East Galway area. I have now placed some photographic evidence
connected with this matter at the following www page address:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/esb-proj.htm Additional evidence can be seen by looking through the full 69 page
set of the ESB project drawings; and, I (and others) are wondering if the planning
permission - WHICH HAS NOW BEEN GRANTED - to
the ESB by Galway County Council is in accordance with the laws laid down in the
National Monuments Act, 1930 (and the subsequent Amendments to this Act) ?
Still more threats to ancient monuments in the East Galway area are listed at the
following www location:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/turoe.htm#threat
I would be very grateful to you if you could let me
have written acknowledgement of receipt for this letter within the coming 14 days
please. To cover for the possibility of Email delivery problems, I intend to send you a
printed copy of this letter through the registered post later today.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. William Finnerty.
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