FREE HOUSE PAINTING INTERNAL & EXTERNAL THE Special Rates for LOCAL Senior Citizens WEST EDITION All areas covered 24 February 2017 Phone: 087 252 4064 • Email: [email protected] • www.localnews.ie l newsl l l l l l Delivering to: Ballyfermot Lucan Leixlip Celbridge Clondalkin Palmerstown Kilcock Maynooth RESIDENTS IMPROVE The Hire Shop Main Street, Dunboyne, Co Meath. Ph: 01 801 3799 Open Mon to Fri 7.30am-6.00pm • Sat 9.00am-5.00pm CLONDALKIN HOUSING PLAN MAKITA • BOSCH • MAXIM • HUSQVARNA • METABO RYOBI • AEG • OREGON • ROLSON • KINZO SPECIAL TO LOCAL BICYCLES SALES & REPAIRS. NEWS by Paul Kelly LAWN MOWERS SALES & REPAIRS All Makes and Models of Equipment for hire CLONDALKIN councillor Mark Ward and his Sinn Féin The Year Avail of the Government Tax Back colleague Eoin Ó Broin TD Scheme for Home Renovations (Dublin Mid West) have scored a significant victory in manoeuvres over modular housing. A 63-house estate is pro- posed for St Cuthbert’s Park, just west of Clondalkin Vil- lage — but Council bosses will now have to listen to SPECIAL OFFER Ward and Ó Broin before they build. Their wide canvass of local opinions and ideas is ONLY now sure to become part and parcel of any new scheme. Modular housing (some- times known as rapid build housing) has had a contro- versial history in the last few New sponsor Littlewoods Ireland and the Camogie Association were joined by a host of Ireland’s top years as all Dublin councils Camogie players including Dublin player, Sarah O’Donovan, as the Littlewoods Ireland Camogie Leagues have struggled to cope with were launched in style in Dublin’s Radisson Blu Hotel. The League got underway last weekend. 5,000 full colour A5 leaflets the 80,000+ people, city and PRINT & DELIVERY county, still on housing wait- Dublin County Council plans Community College Cuthbert’s Park, and re- Phone: 087 252 4064 ing lists. for 63 new dwellings (mainly • extra work on drainage, duce other forms of anti- B+B HELL stand-alone houses) as a bar- water, planting, and many social behaviour. Parties have learned to gaining chip. By offering other local amenities. • It would modify the den- their cost that support for ei- guarded support — and sity and layout of ther side can be fraught with promising to serve up the co- dwellings in the existing danger. operation, with conditions, of QUAD BIKES plan, leading to fewer Oppose any new build, the locals — they now look lighting and privacy prob- However, the party’s most and there is indignant protest set to win a number of con- lems for residents, partic- from those still in B+B hell. cessions and “sweeteners” radical proposal is that the ularly in Lealand Walk and #1 for CCTV Installations But support a modular from the Council, including: “flat-line” plan for the origi- Lealand Avenue to the scheme, and the voices of • better lighting, particu- nal housing site (see map) south and southeast. • HD quality images local protest can be loud and larly in and around Lindis- should be extended north- The Sinn Féin proposals • Reasonable prices wards. shrill. Many residents opt for farne Road and Melrose have a way to go before they • Friendly professional a simple NIMBY (Not In My Avenue (see map) The party is pushing for are considered, much less Back Yard) approach to all • more vigilant policing, an L-shaped estate, extend- adopted by South Dublin service such dwellings. particularly concerning ing north to Melrose Park. County Council manage- Free • Live images available Now, Sinn Féin appears to the use of St Cuthbert’s This would solve many prob- ment. quotations to view on smartphone have found a manoeuvre to Park itself lems, they say: However, by basing their Fully Licensed & Insured outflank both critics and sup- • modifications to en- • It would stop quad bike appeals on a canvass of no porters of such schemes. tranceways, to accommo- riders from constantly fewer than 181 homes — in- Gary 0862698129 • www.dublincctvinstallations.ie They have used the South date students in the local speeding up and down St continued on page 2 HANDY NO MORE TV BILLS EVER JOHNNY MAN ALL SORTS FULLY MULTI-ROOM ALL KINDS OF WORK EVERYTHING DONE INSTALLED OPTIONS AVAILABLE YOU NAME IT, WE DO IT €289 www.billfreetv.ie ALL AROUND MAN for more details PHONE:01 454 9008 086 126 8949 2 | TH E LO CAL NEWS from page 1 adoption of the Sinn volving hundreds of Féin proposals. residents in the im- We asked specifi- mediate area —Cllr cally if it was likely Criminal Mark Ward and Eoin that the site would Ó Broin TD have suc- be modified from a ceeded in making flatline plan to an L- legal aid these changes diffi- shaped one, extend- cult, if not impossi- ing it up to Melrose ble, to ignore. Park. Their Director of The Criminal Justice (Legal Housing, Social and Aid) Act 1962 provides that CLLR WARD Community Devel- opment Billy Coman legal aid may be granted, in Councillor Mark was in a meeting and Ward told Local Cllr MARK WARD: certain circumstances, for the canvassed residents unable to take our News that the re- call. defence of persons of insuffi- sponse of residents News. to the modular hous- He said the is- cient means in criminal pro- ing was overwhelm- sues raised by resi- BACK BY ingly positive, and dents were RESIDENTS ceedings. The grant of legal that the party itself reasonable, and aid entitles the applicant to backs the St Cuth- could be accommo- However it is BUILDING UP: Sinn Féin proposes to extend the plan northward (green loop) bert’s Park scheme: dated without com- now certain that the towards Melrose Park the services of a solicitor and, “Sinn Féin sup- promising the overall detailed Sinn Féin ports [this scheme] idea — or the speed proposals — backed Park area over the idents — who rou- ding the party in with in certain circumstances, up on the basis that the with which it could as they are by input next few months. tinely oppose all so- residents and their to two barristers, in the development takes be delivered. from hundreds of If the party is lis- cial housing, associations. into account the Local News con- local residents — will tened to —particu- especially modular It remains to be preparation and conduct of views and sugges- tacted South Dublin be part and parcel of larly in its radical — and helping those seen, however, tions of the local County Council to any planning and proposal to extend currently sentenced whether Sinn Féin their defence. the ground plan to a life in B+B hell. community,” Cllr see if there was any building process in will be as successful Normally an application for legal aid will be northwards to Mel- This new tactic Mark Ward told Local appetite for the the St Cuthbert’s in winning over as straightforward, the judge will some- rose Park —their — win benefits for Council manage- times ask the Gardaí if they have any ob- “canvass the locals” locals, and thus their jections to legal aid being granted. The tactic is likely to be support for new ment as they have general rule is that if the offence is a serious copied elsewhere. schemes — will bol- been in engaging one and you can’t afford to pay for your Recently, Sinn ster Sinn Féin sup- with the voters of own legal advice, then the court grants a Féin has had to tread port amongst the Melrose Park, legal aid certificate. a delicate line be- most needy while at Lealand Road and tween alienating res- the same time bed- Lindisfarne Grove. An applicant for legal aid must establish to the satisfaction of the court that their means are insufficient to enable them to DICK HUMPHREYS, pay for legal representation. The grant of legal aid is a discretionary matter for the court. In the case of a minor the court will IRISH HERO, FOR ROUND look at the means of the parents or guardian to see if they can afford to pay for TOWER SHOW the legal advice. SUPPLY AND INSTALLATION OF BLINDS ROLLER, VERTICAL, HE WAS THE PUPIL, Patrick Pearse his secondary school teacher. An applicant for free legal aid may be re- VENETIAN, ROMAN, VELUX Incredibly, poignantly, pupil and teacher ended up comrades in arms, united in the quired by the court to complete a state- fight for freedom in the Easter Rising of 1916. ment of means. It is an offence for an Home Consultations applicant to knowingly make a false state- This is part of the extraordinary story of Clondalkin’s local hero Dick Humphreys. Professional service with competitive prices ment or conceal a material fact for the pur- Humphreys, member of the Irish Volunteers and nephew of The O’Rahilly, fought be- Over 14 years experience in Window Blinds pose of obtaining legal aid. side his uncle, and Pearse himself, in the GPO. Ph: 01-621 0100 or 085 733 8847 Two years earlier, uncle and nephew had organised the famous Howth gun-running. Under the Garda Station Legal Advice Re- Now, finally, the full life story of Dick Humphreys is to be included in an exhibition in vised Scheme, free legal advice can be pro- Email: [email protected] the Round Tower Centre in Clondalkin. vided to those detained in Garda stations, providing they satisfy a means test. www.gerardmaloneblinds.com Cllr Francis Timmons (Ind, Clondalkin) tells Local News that local libraries are joining with descendents of the Irish Volunteers and others to research the full story of Dick Johnston Solicitors are on the legal aid Humphreys.