The equine members of Finglas pony club have been returned, but the council will not provide stables for them, writes John Downes.
When the trucks, council workers and gardaí arrived at Scribblestown Lane in north Dublin last Saturday morning, they did so under cover of near darkness. It was not long after 5.15am, as Morgan Lambert tells it, when he awoke to the sound of significant activity in the lane, near Ballyboggan Road in Finglas. The decision had been taken to remove makeshift stables used by local children.
Frantic, Lambert alerted others involved in the informally-run pony and horse club. An hour later, a sizeable group had gathered to watch in dismay as they saw containers being moved from the site.
Lambert has lived on Scribblestown Lane all his life, and had gone from being an interested observer to actively engaging with the "pony children" who used a vacant plot of land near the end of the lane to house some 30 animals.
A benefit of the horses' presence was the fact that the night-time chorus of so-called "joyriding" down the lane, and the resulting burnt-out cars, had disappeared, he says.
"I haven't heard a car screeching down here for months . . . people just realise that the horses are here and that they are being used by the kids."
Locals - mainly parents and their children - say they had grown tired of repeated commitments from politicians and Fingal County Council to provide accommodation for their horses. About three months ago they decided to club together and place containers, some of which were bought through contributions from locals, and others donated, on the land. Crucially, they had neither sought, nor obtained, permission from the council.
GINA MAGUIRE, WHO helps to operate the club, says local horses have been allowed to graze on the site for at least 25 years. In all, there were three 20-foot containers, and four 40-foot containers on the site, she says. "The stables belonged to everyone," she says. "The whole point was to have a place where they could be taught how to do everything to ensure their horses and ponies are okay. It means there are fewer kids on the street causing trouble . . . even kids who didn't have horses here were asking: 'Can we clean the stables?'"
For Dermot Dunne, who also lives nearby, this was a disaster for a community which too often hits the headlines for the wrong reasons. He said locals had received assurances from the council that no action would take place in advance of a meeting scheduled for last Monday.
In a statement on Monday, the council said the containers were brought illegally on to the land "by people unknown to us without our permission. We formally fixed notices to the containers on August 30th instructing the owners to remove them within seven days or further action would be taken . . . horses removed from these lands were moved to a professional horse facility where they are presently being cared for."
On Tuesday, following significant media coverage of the issue - helped in no small part by the involvement of gardener and broadcaster Diarmuid Gavin, who has filmed an RTÉ television series featuring children from the area - the council met Dunne and others.
After that meeting, the council stated: "All club and horse owner representatives agreed that no containers would be placed on council-owned land in the future. Agreement has been reached and arrangements are in place to return the horses to their owners."
COUNCIL SPOKESMAN Stephen Peppard subsequently told The Irish Times that, despite what locals who attended the meeting believed, a lease agreement for the land will not be entered into with the community-run club.
Future meetings will relate to the use of the land, with "various fencing options" considered as part of this, he added. He also pointed out that another organisation, the Finglas Horse and Pony Project, had denied ownership of the containers.
"Any suggestion that nothing would be done before a meeting with the council was negated by the fact that extra containers were placed on the site last week," he said.
For his part, Dunne stresses that the Finglas Horse and Pony Project is a separate entity to the community-run club which he and the locals operate on an informal basis. No one from the council had attempted to contact any of his club's members, he says, and the last of the containers had appeared on the site over a month ago.
According to Dunne, at least 150 men, women and children gathered at Scribblestown Lane on Wednesday evening to watch the return of the horses.
"I let the ramp down on the [ horse] box and the kids' faces were something else, they were all dying to see was their horse there, and was it okay," he says.
Dunne, who is understandably nervous of offending the council, acknowledges that there nevertheless remains a need for somewhere for the children to store their feed, harnesses - and horses.
"We will try to negotiate with the council to see if they could accommodate some sort of shelter on the land," he says. But he fears the council will not formally recognise his group when it comes to negotiations.
Peppard told The Irish Times that the council does not intend to provide stables for the children involved in the club.
Ride on: the horse whisperer
Gardener and TV presenter Diarmuid Gavin, who has filmed an RTÉ television series featuring children from the area, says he has discussed the possibility of fundraising to provide proper stables. Gavin says any move to introduce these structures would require the permission of the council, and acknowledges that people cannot just put whatever they want on council land, without seeking permission.
"But you must look at the purpose of it. It wasn't for themselves they were doing it, it was for their children," he says. "Rather than sending police down in a heavy-handed way, would you not just say well done to them?"
Gavin plans to become a member of the club and may even keep a pony of his own there. "People have to understand that the kids in this area aren't bad, just because they wear hoodies or might look tough. It's just that they have never been listened to," he says.