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clareecho.ie
Aug 17 2023
SISTER SUCCESS AT FLEADH
Priest promises planner ‘blessings’ if car park granted by Gordon Deegan news@clareecho.ie
l Edel Cusack, winner in the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann U18 concertina competition and Orla Cusack, bronze winner in the Fleadh and Munster championships Photo by Ruth Griffin
A CLARE priest has promised a female Council planner that if she grants planning permission for a new Church car park it will bring her many blessings. Parish priest of Lisdoonvarna, Kilshanny, Toovahera and Doolin, Fr Robert McNamara made the promise to the planner in an email where he stated that he is ‘perplexed’ why Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) would be objecting to his plans for a new car-park to serve “a little architectural gem’ of a Church in the Burren, Co Clare.
Fr McNamara has lodged plans with Clare County Council for the car-park to serve an historic 1878 church, Toovahera at Kilmoone West, Lisdoonvarna. In his email, Fr McNamara said, “This seems so ironic as we are trying to enhance health and safety”. Fr McNamara addresses a Council planner in an email and tells her “I really hope that you do the sensible and decent thing and please uphold our application. I can promise you that to do so will bring you many blessings”. Earlier in the email, Fr McNamara stated that the
aim in providing the carpark “is to create a safe environment on a busy road by taking cars off the road during mass times and avoiding the necessity for dangerous situations and indeed, fatalities”. Fr McNamara adds that this safety issue has been thrown into even sharper relief by what he describes as the recent sad death of parishioner, Jerry O’Connor whose motorbike, he said, collided with a car driven by a French tourist with tragic results. Full Story Page 9
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