From: William
Finnerty
To: Police Commissioner
Pat Byrne (Chief Officer, Garda Siochana)
Cc: Justice
Minister John O'Donoghue ; Attorney General (Mr Michael McDowell) ; Heritage
Minister Sile de Valera ; Heritage
Minister Mary Coughlan ; Environment Minister Noel Dempsey ; Health
Minister Micheal Martin ; Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney ; Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern ; President Mary McAleese ; Senator
Margaret Cox ; Environment Protection
Agency ; An Taisce ; Bord Pleanala ; Heritage Council
; Mr Tom Kavanagh
(Galway County Council Director of Environmental & Conservation Services)
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 2:14 PM
Subject: 2nd Email to Garda Síochána regarding protection of ancient monuments in
East Galway.
Dear Commissioner Byrne,
To date, I have not received any reply to my first e-mail to you dated May 9th 2001
(which is reproduced below).
The Post Office have informed me that the printed copy of the e-mail below which I
sent to you through the registered post was "successfully delivered" by them to
the correct address on May 10th 2001.
As I trust you will understand, and with due regard for the very considerable
amount of time (and money) that I have now spent on local heritage and other
environmental problems, I would like to be clear in my own mind that you are fully aware
of the information I sent to you on May 9th 2001.
In case that for some reason you do not know about my registered letter to you of
May 9th 2001, I have now added a scanned copy of it at the www page address immediately
below. There is also a scanned copy of the associated Post Office registration receipt on
the same page:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/gd-si-1.htm
In passing, I would like to mention that I have received a written reply from the
Environment Protection Agency to the e-mail below; and that a part of their response
states that Duchas have responsibilities regarding the protection of ancient monuments.
However, and as I have already pointed out to Prime Minister Ahern (and others) several
months ago, my past efforts at communicating the difficulties in question to Duchas have
not produced any useful practical results that I know of: please see the 2nd
paragraph of my letter dated October 11th 2000 to Prime Minister Ahern which is reproduced
at the following www address:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/chaplefinnerty/letters7/oct-11-2000.htm#number
Finally, I would like you to be aware that (in a letter to me dated November 20th 2000)
Justice Minister John O'Donoghue advised (in effect) to report to the Garda
Síochána heritage problems of the type set out in the e-mail below. Now that I have done
so, I would be very grateful for a written acknowledgement of receipt from you for the
information in question (as requested earlier in the last paragraph of my letter to you of
May 9th 2001).
Yours sincerely,
Mr. William Finnerty.
----- Original Message -----
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 Gardie 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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