Menlo Castle should be preserved

Home

Sections

Letters

Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 08 August 2007

Dear Editor,

We fully support the call from the Labour Party for Menlo Castle and all it's surrounding to be established as a new city park. The building itself should be a stabilised and preserved ruin much as it has been for the past 100 years.

Such preservation of iconic ruins to give a sense of history is common elsewhere. One ready example is the Bothwell Castle ruin beside a golf course just five miles from central Glasgow.

But were the Bothwell ruins misfortunate enough to be sited in Galway they probably have been developed into apartments long ago!

To even consider allowing rich persons of high pretension to develop the Menlo ruins into private apartments can therefore only be seen as a thoroughly bad idea. Yet this was favoured by a former city manager. Reportedly it's still being pursued by City Hall in discussions kept secret from the Councillors and us all.

Our councillors should therefore demand that the current City Manager inform them fully on all such discussions and the present state of play. Thereafter they should ensure that all Menlo Castle and its surroundings be preserved for future generations, as a new riverside park quite open to everyone.

Galwegians should not tolerate any further cases, of potential public amenities being degraded into private gain.

Thanking you,

Dr Sean O'Donnell,

Cathaoirleach Cairde na Gaillimhe

Comments (0) »