*Cllr Donna McGettigan. Photograph: Eamon Ward
SUGGESTIONS to honour shopkeepers in the Drumgeely area of Shannon are to be considered by the memorial committee of Clare County Council.
Under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme announced in February 2022, an allocation of €225,000 was made for Drumgeely in Shannon with works recently completed.
At a meeting of the Shannon Municipal District, Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) proposed that one of the recently installed benches be named in honour of Mick O’Neill “as one of the old shopkeepers in Drumgeely. This will tie the old with the new. Residents approached me on this matter and all would love to see this happening”.
Administrative officer in the Council’s transportation department, Liam O’Connor explained, “An application for a memorial bench can be considered by the Memorial Committee on receipt of the relevant details. In order to bring the proposal to the committee, a site location map and dimensional drawing and wording of the proposed plaque are required. If the proposal is approved by the memorial committee, it will be brought to a monthly meeting of Clare County Council for formal approval”.
Pointing out that each Municipal District was represented on the memorial committee, Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) stated, “I support what you’re saying but I’d like to include Terry and Carmel Neylon who provide shops in the area”. He added, “the memorial committees don’t provide the bench, they provide a badge and normally a request goes to the residents to nominate someone and we have to be very careful when nominating. The reason the memorial committee was put in place was on road safety concerns”.
Procedure should be followed, Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) believed. “I agree with Donna in principle but could this come before memorial committee, we’re dealing with them every day, there is templates out there for all these things”.
A precedent had been set “with a similar type of thing” at the entrance to Carraig Midhe, Cllr Michael Begley (IND) noted.
Cathaoirleach of the Shannon MD, Cllr McGettigan agreed to let the proposal go before the memorial committee for further discussion.
