LETTER: Delay in addressing Mayo Peace Park decay reveals lack of civic pride

Sir,

I READ the article in The Connaught Telegraph on October 31 about the Mayo Peace Park with great sadness.

Michael Feeney MBE has devoted years of his life to bringing the Peace Park to fruition and to see it literally sink into the ground and fall into disrepair is nothing short of disgraceful. It is a total lack of civic pride.

Over the last 20 years we have watched the old convent being razed to the ground and the Imperial Hotel fall into ruin and decay.

Is the council now going to allow one of the most important peace projects in Western Europe to follow suit?

The article stated: 'The committee wrote to Mayo County Council about their concerns about the memorial wall tilting in May 2021, but no action has been taken since.'

That was over two years ago.

That's inexcusable and embarrassing. The Peace Park itself is 500 metres, as the crow flies, from the council buildings.

Every man who lost his life in WWI (including my great-granduncle) from our town and county is remembered on that wall. That wall is now falling apart. Those men lost their lives in Gallipoli and the fields of France in the belief that they were fighting for Irish freedom.

In 1914, the Government of Ireland Act (Home Rule Act) was enacted which guaranteed limited self-government within the United Kingdom. The implementation of this act was suspended with the outbreak of WWI.

The men from Castlebar and Mayo who fought in WWI did so on the pretext that they were fighting for a devolved Ireland when the war had ended. They were just as courageous as the men of 1916. No more. No less. They were willing to die for the cause of Ireland.

These men shouldn't be casually airbrushed from our history.

They deserve to be remembered and Micheal Feeney made it his life's mission to ensure that they were remembered.

My great-grandfather was a member of the IRA. I'm very proud of that. I always stop and pause at the Republican plot in Castlebar as I pass it.

I visit the Republican plot in Ballina (which is beautiful) frequently, but just because my own personal allegiance is aligned with the hue of republicanism, it doesn't mean I can't respect and honour the men who adorn the wall that is now falling asunder and into disrepair.

Currently, there is €11 million in funding provided by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage which is waiting to be spent in the town.

With the conflict in the Ukraine and the ensuing soaring inflation, the buying power of the €11 million is being eroded all the time.

Surely some money could be set aside from this fund and it could be spent on the Peace Park. A paltry €200,000 donation would go a long way.

Much has been said and debated about the €5.25 million that has been allocated to the Imperial Hotel and still hasn't been spent. But what about the remainder? Can the council not pursue other projects? The barracks? The Peace Park?

What is it exactly they are waiting for? The money is there. Get on with it. Do your job. And do it.

In closing, we are watching a world in conflict at the moment. Our Peace Park acts as a place and space of reconciliation, where we can honour our forebearers and make peace with our complex and violent past.

It is a major international tourist attraction; bus loads come from far and wide. Let's not just let it sink into the ground.

Let us protect it for the generations to come so that they can understand their past and thus understand themselves.

We owe it to future generations to protect and safeguard the Peace Park. But we also owe it to Michael Feeney.

The very least that we can do as a community is respect his Trojan efforts in making this town and county a better place for the people of today and the people of tomorrow.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Richard Martyn, Pavilion Road, Castlebar.