Carrickmines - 'They havent gone away you know.....'

dublin | environment | opinion/analysis Sunday January 18, 2004 13:40 by Tara Hill

Carrickmines - News and Comment

GOOD news for conservationists this Sunday Morning. Carrickmines Castle goes to appeal in the Supreme Court this Thursday. This comes within a fortnight of the most recent hearing at the High Court, where regrettably from the conservationist’s point of view, a retrograde decision was handed down.

Thursday’s appeal is going in with the apparent support of all involved, who have stated “that it is now beyond doubt that M50 completion does not rely on the destruction of Carrickmines Castle, but ‘Jackson Way’ access does!” Currently under investigation by the CAB and Tribunals, Jackson Way is the real estate Company linked to Liam Lawlor, the rezoning of which, campaigners have said has led to Carrickmines Junction being redesigned in the manner “that has led to the needless destruction of the Carrickmines site.”

Demonisation of Plaintiff – ‘Pleased to meet you…’
This current challenge goes ahead after the recent demonisation by a section of the country’s mainstream media where the plaintiff, Mr Michael Mulcreevy, -was among other things, likened to Gerry Adams – simply because he has a beard and originally hails from Belfast. That groundbreaking piece of journalism was in ‘Ireland on Sunday’ last weekend, and was written by Ann Lucey and Ronald Quinlan.

Other articles that seemed to border on incitement appeared predominantly in ‘Independent Media’ organs. In the ‘Herald’ Deirdre Crowley described Mulcreevy’s council-built Co. Kerry house as his ‘large rented house’ under the hysterical headline which screamed ‘A million miles from traffic hell’.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Reportage In ‘The Independent’
Meanwhile in the ‘Independent’, the Environment Correspondent, Treacy Hogan, wrote under a headline that screamed “The Real Victim In This Is You - The Taxpayer”. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, and instead Treacy lamented how Carrickmines court actions have led to “the cost of the 11km South-Eastern Motorway has soared from 145M Euros to 195M due to the delay of more than a year.”

Never mind that as far back as September 17, 2002, in the Irish Times, Tim O’Brien warned that the M50 would be delayed by a year due to contractual disagreements between Dun Laoghaire Council and the builders, Ascon. So that accounts for the delays, but what about the costs? The Independent declared that the costs were 50M as a result of the delays arising out of the castle dispute, and that the total cost was now going to be 145M. Of course the amusement here is that it is only as recent as last May in the Irish Times that it was reported that the cost of “the South Eastern Motorway, (has) a total value of some E.700 million”. So then, at least the price has dropped from 700M to 195M!

How on earth did the Independent contrive a 50M figure - when according to Dun Laoghaire Councils own spin-doctors, they put the figure at “about 10 million”? Yes, indeed “the real victim here is you the taxpayer”, or at least any Independent reader who was hoodwinked into believing such a load of potentially defamatory codswallop.

The Real Victim Here Is… The Truth!
Peculiarly, given their fixation with the costs, Independent Media forgot to mention that Irish Infrastructure costs, whether its Luas or the Calastrava Joyce Bridge, tend to be 4-500% over budget and rarely – if ever – come in on time. But then again, the Independent also omitted to mention that only before Christmas did Dun Laoghaire Council decide to substantially change the M50 junction at Lehaunstown, at the behest of developers. That little matter of course raises the awkward question that if altering Lehaunstown Junction at this late stage doesn’t delay the M50, why wasn’t Carrickmines remedied over a year ago when the dispute first became public?

Yet rather than addressing that issue, or quoting the leading academics who stated the archaeological value of the site ‘is on par with Woodquay’, “Independent” newspapers simply tried to belittle the plaintiff as “trying to halt the road”. This is despite that Mr Mulcreevy has constantly re-iterated that they want to see the road completed – but around the Monument, as was case in the original plan.

One awaits with interest then, not only the outcome on Thursday, but also to see what, if any, measures those named as being involved with Carrickmines take in order to redress the way that their names have been very publicly dragged through the mud. This writer notes that Ireland does not yet have a Press Complaints Commission…But then again Minister Michael McDowell may just have found an assisting case emerging from the most unlikely of quarters.

Tara Hill
(copyright 2004)