What it Says in the Castlebar and Mayo Papers

March 28th, 2001

Connaught Telegraph

The Mayo News

The Western People

Bev: "I've no intention of quitting politics" The Connaught Telegraph this week.

Beverley Cooper-Flynn has made it abundantly clear that she will not be resigning from public life. In an exclusive interview with the Connaught Telegraph, the Fianna Fail deputy said she was fully committed to her job of representing Mayo in Dail Eireann. Speculation was mounting, following the outcome of her High Court libel action against Charlie Bird and farmer James Howard, that she could be forced to opt out of politics because of the jury's finding that she enticed people to evade tax by ignoring the 1993 tax amnesty. The 34-year-old T.D. did concede to growing opposition unrest to the court's decision by resigning from the Dail's Public Affairs Committee following consultation with her party whip, Seamus Brennan,. But she has no intention of going any further than that. She said: "I have a job to do as a public representative for Mayo and I intend to do it. It's business as usual as far as I am concerned. I have a contribution to make and I intend to do it to the best of my ability. As far as I am aware, I will be allowed to continue in my job". It is understood that the Fianna Fail party will be standing fully behind her and that pressure will not be placed on her by the organisation.

Link Road cinema goes to appeal for the fourth time The Connaught Telegraph this week.

The long-running box office war in Castlebar simmers on and on. An appeal has been lodged to An Bord Pleanala against the decision of the Local Urban Council to grant planning permission to Cavendish Lane Properties for a mixed development consisting of a leisureplex, electronic games arcade and five screen cinema along the Dunnes Stores link road at Knockacroghery in the town. Ormonde Cinemas Dungarven Limited, with an address at Herbert Street in Dublin, submitted the appeal. The firm has direct business interests in the county town as film distributors to Castlebar's seven-screen cinema, Mayo Movie World. It is the fourth time that an appeal has being lodged against the building of a cinema at the Knockacroghery site and on each of the previous occasions, the council decision to grant planning permission was turned down. The plan to build the cinema has the backing of the Ward Anderson Group, the biggest film distributors in the country. Ormonde claim the extent of development at Knockacroghery, in general, is 'massive' for a town the size of Castlebar. "The result is that all these developments will skew the town centre heavily in this direction to the detriment of other areas, including the north-eastern side where my client's development is located," stated the objection.

Plug pulled on Four Days Walks due to foot and mouth scare The Connaught Telegraph this week.

One of the longest running festivals in Mayo has fallen victim to the foot and mouth crisis. The organisers of the Castlebar Four Day Walks announced at the weekend that this year's event will not be going ahead, an inevitable decision which is likely to cost the county town in excess of $500,000 in tourism revenue. Elaine Devereux, director of the festival, explained that the decision was taken with regret in view of the fact that it had never been cancelled before in its 34-year history. The event was due to take place from Thursday to Sunday, June 28th - July 1st with an international participation of over 1,500 walkers. Stated Ms. Devereux "It is very disappointing that we are forced to make this decision, especially at this late stage. However, we had no other option in the national interest, given the seriousness of the current situation."

' Who pays' suspense for Mayo T.D. The Mayo News this week.

Mayo Fianna Fail T.D. Beverley Cooper-Flynn, will not know for another week who will have to pay the costs of her marathon libel action against RTE, journalist Charlie Bird and retired farmer James Howard. The trial was the longest libel action in Irish legal history and various experts have estimated the cost of the 28-day hearing at between $0.5 million and $2 million. A decision that she would pay her own costs could leave her facing a bill of up to $1 million. She indicated after the court verdict was announced that she was 'strongly considering' an appeal. Earlier the jury had found that RTE and Mr. Bird had not proved that Ms. Cooper-Flynn had induced Mr. James Howard to evade his lawful obligation to pay tax. But the jury also found that RTE, Mr. Bird and Mr. Howard had proved that she had advised or encouraged a number of persons referred to in evidence during the trial to evade tax. The jury also decided that her reputation had suffered no material injury because of broadcasts nearly three years ago and that no damages should be awarded. Speaking after the jury's decision. Ms. Cooper-Flynn said: "In my first public statement on this matter and throughout my time in court I said that I never advised any of my clients to evade their lawful obligations to pay tax. I repeat that now."

No Ryanair refunds for unlucky pensioners The Mayo News.

English and Scottish old-age pensioners due to fly to Knock Airport for a four-day reunion in Mayo and who cancelled their visit rather than risk carrying foot and mouth infection into the Republic have been refused refunds by Ryanair. The group of ten, all but one of them pensioners, planned to come to Mayo for a reunion with Balla-based author, Angela Burt, who has lived in Mayo for many years and who has written several books on the correct use of the English language. Ms. Burt takes up the story "In the light of the foot and mouth outbreak, they very responsibly decided to cancel their arrangements. They were coming from Scotland and a number of different counties in England and they recognised that the risk of them carrying infection into Ireland was too great. Each of my friends had paid in full and Ryanair would not refund a penny or issue a credit note for a later date. The holiday insurance cannot be claimed either because they are not actually in quarantine. Ryanair, I gather from a spokeswoman in the Irish Tourist Board, is the only airline not offering refunds, I feel deeply ashamed," said Ms. Burt.

Work on Market Square The Mayo News this week.

A major refurbishment of Market Square, Castlebar, is currently under way and it is hoped that the project will be completed later this year. Phase One of the scheme - the installation of a pedestrian area close to the County Cleaners is now in its final stage with the laying of a paved surface on an elevated street plateau. The area will comprise street furniture, seating, shrubbery, flower beds and sculptures and is intended to revitalise the streetscape by making it more 'pedestrian friendly'.

Eircom 'No' to seven digit Mayo numbers The Western People this week.

A proposal to increase local telephone lengths in County Mayo from five digits to seven digits is being opposed by Eircom. The proposal has come from the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) but Eircom, in a strongly worded statement on Monday said that it disagreed fundamentally "with these radical changes". If the changes go through 585,000 customers all over the country will have to completely change their telephone numbers. Eircom says this is totally unnecessary because, out of a possible 4.6 million numbers within those areas, only 2.2 million have actually being allocated to telecommunications operators, leaving 2.4 million still available. In addition to making all Mayo numbers seven digit, ODTR proposes removing the Athlone code of 0902 and making it 092. As this is the present code for Ballinrobe it will have to change to 094. Eircom believes this will be hugely confusing to telephone users as local area codes have been in existence for approximately 50 years. Eircom agreed that there is a requirement to increase capacity in a small number of local area codes but believes this can be done by increasing the subscriber number length in those areas.

Angling, tourism being scuttled by FMD restrictions The Western People this Tuesday.

Angling, and angling tourism, is taking a severe battering as a result of the present foot and mouth restrictions. There have been calls for a relaxation of the measures which have hit the start of the angling season and have the potential to scuttle it completely if they continue. New guidelines issued last week advise anglers to refrain from fishing where this involves entry onto agricultural lands. They also discourage anglers, from the UK or other destinations where FMD has been confirmed, from visiting Ireland for the time being. The biggest difficulty for anglers, those involved in clubs and people who service angler visitors, is the uncertainty about competitions, bookings and the remainder of the present season. "It is very hard to see much light at the end of the tunnel when you cannot advise people that certain competitions will be held and that angling will be fully open at a later stage in the season," one hotelier remarked

Students protest in Castlebar and Ballinrobe The Western People this week.

A large number of students from two of the secondary schools in Castlebar walked out in protest at the ASTI strike on Monday . Over five hundred of the non-exam classes from St. Gerald's Secondary School and St. Joseph's Convent of Mercy walked out of their classes around 11 a.m. and could be heard chanting protest in The Mall, Castlebar at the ongoing teachers' strike. Students of Ballinrobe Community School also walked out of their classes on Friday last in protest at the number of school days already lost due to the strike. Exam classes have already been disrupted when it was decided to defer the oral Junior and Leaving Cert. exams which usually take place in March but will not be held this year in some cases until after the Easter holidays due to the ASTI strike.

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