Moltaí an
Údaráis Faoi
Phleanáil
Is beag airde a thug Comhairleoirí Chontae Chonamara ar mholtaí Údarás na Gaeltachta maidir le cúrsaí pleanála. Ag labhairt ag Comhdháil a d'eagraigh Údarás na Gaeltachta, d'iarr Pádraig Ó hAoláin, Príomhfheidhmeannach an Údaráis, nach ndéanfaí aon athrú ar pholasaí reatha na Comhairle Contae maidir le coinníollacha teanga go dtí go mbeadh toradh le feiceáil ar an réimse moltaí a bhí á gcur chun chinn aige féin. Bhí sé ag moladh go gcuirfeadh an tAire Gnóthaí Pobail, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta agus an tAire Comhshaoil, Oidhreachta agus Rialtais Áitiúil grúpa oibre le chéile chun teacht ar thuiscint agus cur chuige comónta faoin nGaeilge sa chóras pleanála sna seacht gcontae ina bhfuil ceantar Gaeltachta iontu. Mhol sé freisin go gcuirfí síneadh ama leis an bPlean Ceantair atá á ullmhú do Ghaeltacht na Gaillimhe go deireadh na bliana le go bhféadfaí céimeanna áirithe a ghlacadh lena chinntiú go dtiocfaí ar phlean foirfe a bheadh ina eiseamláir do na Gaeltachtaí eile. Ag an gComhdháil féin bhí buairt na n-ionadaithe pobail a bhí i láthair faoi dhearcadh na gComhairleoirí Contae soiléir. Ardaíodh ceist i ndiaidh ceiste an ar son phobal Chonamara nó forbróirí a bhí na Comhairleoirí ag feidhmiú sa cheist áirithe seo? In ainneoin na buartha seo ar fad agus achainí Uí Aoláin shocraigh Comhairleoirí Chontae Chonamara rith isteach sa Chomhairle agus mórathruithe a dhéanamh ar an dréachtphlean contae.
Is cinnte nach chun leas na
teanga a rachaidh na athruithe
seo agus ardaíonn sé an cheist
arís faoi cé dhó a raibh na
Comhairleoirí ag feidhmiú? Is
cinnte go mbeidh a thuilleadh
díospóireachta ar an gceist seo.
Lár Sráide Galway Advertiser 3/8/2006 |
A welcome back
to our own people
Joe Feeney spent his early
childhood years in Lettermore in
Connemara. Then he went to
America with his family. It is many
scores of years ago ‹ a time when it
was an uphill battle for emigrants.
Joe Feeney worked his way from the
bottom to an honoured role in
Massachussetts. Did he forget
where he came from? You can bet
your life he didn't. He continued his
close connections with his own
people. He would say to you that he
did whatever he could for people
from "home" in his life and in the
legal profession.
I thought of that incident the
other night in the Chamber of
Galway County Council when the
Director of Planning, Paul Ridge
asked - "what connection would
someone who left as a child have
with the area?" Paul Ridge's
question was put in the midst of
debate about planning permission
for returning emigrants as the
Galway County Development
Review meeting was in progress.
Now, let's not get into
misunderstandings - Paul Ridge is
an able and decent man and he may
have been seeing the issue from a
different angle. Planning has many
angles but I believe that Galway
County councillors have taken a
historic decision following on this
debate.
Great era in this country
It is, in so many ways - despite
the problems that will inevitably
arise - a great period in the history
of this country. Only last week, we
learned from the Central Statistics
Office that our population is now at
its highest point since the terrible
Famine times of the nineteenth
century. Galway's population has
gone up 10 per cent in the last four
or five years. The curse of
emigration and the haunting stories
of the American Wake are now but
a memory - but they should always
be remembered as long as Ireland
has a heart and a soul. What better
practical way to do that than put the
immediate families of our emigrants
on the same footing as us at home in
the planning regulations in County
Galway? And isn't it an appropriate
time to do it when Ireland is
successful?
Long history and great
contribution
The emigrants who left the
poorest areas carried with them a
heavier responsibility - they
remained a cornerstone of the their
communities at home, sending
money back regularily. Indeed, that
connection to their communities
passed forth to other generations.
My mother in Connemara and her
first cousin in South Boston - a
woman who was born and reared in
that city - wrote back and forth to
each other all through their lives.
At Christmas, her cousin in Boston
would send some dollars, a vital
part of the "American fund" that got
us over the threshold until the next
year. It was the same with
thousands of other families. My
mother and her cousin never saw
each other in person, for neither of
them ever crossed the Atlantic, east
or west. Indeed, they never even
spoke on the telephone - there
certainly was no telephone here -
but they "knew" each other all of
their lives.
The fact that my mother's cousin
in Boston never visited Ireland did
not mean that she did not have a
very real connection with her
parents' community - and know a lot
about it.
Mixed voices and views
In the next couple of months we
can expect details from the planning
section of Galway County Council
about how they intend putting these
measures for the family members of
emigrants into effect. It will be
hoped that this will be a generous
and broad interpretation of what
has been decided by the councillors.
On a cautionary note, Councillor
Séamus Walsh, an engineer and the
son of emigrants who have spent
their lives in England, says he has
concerns about the interpretation.
"There may be a view in
management that this benefit to
emigrants' families will not be
available in scenic areas and
environmentally sensitive areas in
the Aran Islands and Connemara
(Class 4 and 5 areas)", he says. We'll
have to wait and see.
How many of the sons and
daughters of emigrants - who
were born and reared abroad - will
want to build a house in their
parent's localities in rural County
Galway? It may not be a big number
- so this decision may be in part
symbolic and in part practical, too.
But the opening of the door to the
"first generation" abroad is a
tribute to the councillors in Co
Galway who understand who we
areŠand where we have come from.
View from the Hills Galway Advertiser 3/8/2006 |