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Community not giving an Inch over telecom tower

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The community of Inch is maintaining a 24-hour vigil outside a telecoms mast that was erected near a family home last week.

Towercom built the 24 meter high telecommunications monopole on their own site – and with full planning permission – within meters of the family home in the west Kerry village.

The tower was erected last week and the scale and size of it caught the community off guard.

“It is a big metal skyscraper in a tiny village,” group spokesperson Katie Foley, of Foley’s Bar told the Killarney Advertiser.
Over the course of the last week the community has held talks with politicians in an effort to get the tower removed.

Towercom has agreed to cease all operations at the site until a meeting can be held between senior Towercom staff and the community.

In the meantime, members of the community are maintain a 24-hour watch on the site in case engineers return.

“We have people here from 7am and 9pm every day and others are keeping an eye through the night,” added Ms Foley.

“The community is sticking in the ground and will not allow this go ahead. We understand that the engineers are just the men on the ground – they are paid to do a job. But we are the people on the ground here and we also have a job to do too. We are trying to get in touch with the men in offices.”

Ms Foley also raised concerns on some of the discrepancies in the planning paperwork. It was stated that tall trees would be planted around the tower to hide it from public view.

“None of that was put in place to even try and camouflage it,” she said.

TOWER OWNERS 

Towercom, the company which owns and operates the new 20m monopole structure at Inch, has stated that the enhanced telecommunication infrastructure is compliant with planning laws and regulations. 

“The increase in demand for mobile broadband in the two years since Covid, to support home working and the significant increase for both business and home use, requires urgent and significantly improved infrastructure countrywide. The enhanced Inch structure is a critical part of this telecommunications network and is required in response to rising demand from consumers ,” said a Towercom statement. 

Full planning permission for the enhanced structur was granted by Kerry County Council in October 2020. 

“Following complaints received earlier this week, Towercom has now paused work, pending discussions to be held locally and arrangements are being made currently in this regard. “We are hopeful that the matter will be resolved shortly to enable provision of improved broadband services for the community living in and those visiting, this part of County Kerry.” Towercom added.

CORRECTION 

In our print edition, dated December 24, we mistakenly said that Eir was the owner of the communication site.

“Eir are aware of the issue over the placement of a mobile mast in Inch, Co. Kerry. The tower has been developed and is owned by Towercom, not eir, and eir mobile service is not available from this mast location. Towercom is engaging with local residents on the matter,” said an eir statement.
 

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Fossa School says ‘bonjour’ to French classes

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Fossa National School is giving its pupils a headstart in learning a new language.

The school signed up to Language Sampler scheme as part of the ‘Say Yes to Languages’ initiative in primary schools organised by Post Primary languages Ireland in 2021. This is the school’s third year running the module.

Hélène Olivier-Courtney, the school’s French teacher and director of French For All Killarney School of French, covers ten schools in Kerry over the three terms.

The success of the initiative relies on an all-school approach and the active involvement of class teachers and management.

“The whole staff in Fossa certainly helped make this new journey a special and enjoyable experience for the children as we learnt French through art, songs, games and food tasting! This year, we also organised a catwalk on our last day. Our sixth-class students will have such a head start before secondary school and most importantly will have develop curiosity interest and love for the language,” said Hélène.

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Opinion: Silent majority needs to stand up and call out far-right hate

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By Chris Davies

Last Friday’s Dublin Riots should not have come as a surprise to anyone. It has been bubbling under the surface of Irish society for a good number of years now. The actions of a small minority last week was a culmination of years of racism, hatred and misinformation shared online by far-right groups.

Late on Friday night a disturbing WhatsApp voice note was doing the rounds on social media where a far-right actor could clearly be heard encouraging violence on the streets of Dublin. 

“’Seven o’clock, be in town. Everyone bally up, tool up…Any foreigner, just kill them”

Watching the Riots unfold on social media brought me back to when I was working in Dublin a number of years back. My morning commute from Skerries to the city centre involved a dart to Connolly Station followed by a short trip on the Luas to the Jervis. Every week, without fail, I would witness at least one racial slur or attack on someone who didn’t fit the narrow minded view of what an Irish person should look, dress or talk like. I don’t know if it is the eerie silence of public transport that seems to amplify the situation, but that’s where I found it to be most common. The abuse was usually perpetrated by a group of youths or someone who was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs. The victims were always of colour, often dressed smartly enough to presume they were on their way, or coming from work. A far cry from the perpetrators who you could tell were roaming aimlessly around the city looking for trouble.

While shameful to admit, I would often look on and watch the abuse unfold, only to spend the rest of my work day thinking about the poor person who was told to “F*&K off back to your own country”. I would sit at my desk questioning why I didn’t step in and say something. There were one or two occasions where I did step in and call it out, but not nearly often enough.  

This disgusting behaviour is much more visible in our cities. Since moving back to Killarney I wouldn’t witness as much direct abuse on the streets but working with the Killarney Advertiser I would be tuned in to local news and some of the comments I read on our social platforms are far worse than anything I witnessed during my time in Dublin.  

There is a significant group of people in Ireland that I would call the ‘silent majority’. We are not as outspoken on issues we care about. We tend to observe and consume the news quietly, and only speak of our support or disgust on certain issues in close circles, too afraid we might offend someone. The problem with this is that we are leaving these far-right groups unchallenged, to become louder, more aggressive and more hostile as seen last week. 

The past week Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats have been busy in the media expressing no confidence in Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris but I would suggest that there is a large percentage of the Irish population that bears some of the responsibility. We witness racism in our communities and online every day and we need to start speaking up and calling it out. 

On the issue of immigration in Killarney, there is no doubt resources are being stretched and our tourism industry is suffering as a result of an influx of immigration. Locals have also raised concerns in relation to the placement of so many male international protection applicants in one setting and we only have to look back on the incident in Hotel Killarney last year where a number of men were involved in a harrowing stabbing incident to see how that played out.  

However, being concerned around immigration is not the same as anti-immigration. It is important to raise these issues with local representatives and Kerry TD’s but also to separate ourselves from far-right groups who are only interested in encouraging violence.  

The anarchy we witnessed last week should never be the answer and research shows it is completely unnecessary. Harvard University have looked at hundreds of protests over the last century, and found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns and that it only takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Let’s continue to protest peacefully for issues we believe in, but stand up and speak out against people and movements in our community that incite hate and violence. 

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