Bishop's sadness at asking Travellers to leave land

The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has told of his sadness in requesting the remaining six Traveller families to move off his front lawn at his Ennis residence.

Over the past five weeks, 12 Traveller families have established an illegal halting site on the bishop's lawn at his Westbourne residence in Ennis. Earlier this week, six families moved on to establish an illegal halting site in another part of Ennis. After an emotional half-hour meeting with the remaining Travellers yesterday, Dr Walsh said: "I am very sad, they are very sad. They were very reasonable and accepted the difficulties I have."

Last month, Dr Walsh imposed a deadline of August 15th for the Travellers to move due to the potential health hazard caused by the halting site having no sanitary facilities, neighbours' concerns and his absence over the coming days due to an impending pilgrimage to Rome.

Dr Walsh said that asking them to move was difficult. "If you stand in front of a nine-year-old child and he says 'are you putting us out, Father?', that is not easy. I asked him to talk to his parents and his parents would explain to him why I would like them to leave.

"I am not putting them out, I have asked them to leave because I think it is better in the long run. My view is that this is a crisis situation and the Travellers staying here does not mean that the crisis is over."

Dr Walsh said he was "not particularly comfortable" with asking the Travellers to move on. "Am I doing exactly the same thing as the settled population telling the Travellers that they have to move away?" He said an urgent response was needed to solve the crisis and appealed to local residents not to go to the courts if Clare County Council established an emergency halting site.

He added: "They are constantly being pushed on and it is hard to expect them to obey the law. If we exclude people long enough, they will turn against you."

Dr Walsh said he "wouldn't close the gates" of his residence on the Travellers and would be prepared in the future to respond to a similar situation. "At the same time, I have to respect my neighbours and I don't want this property to become a permanent illegal halting site. I have to respect the laws of the land as well."

Before moving on, Mr Patrick Keenan, a father-of-eight, said: "The bishop was tormented and stressed out asking us to move. He was very upset and we wouldn't go against him. He has done his best. It is the council's fault because they haven't provided any halting site for us. We will go up town now and see how we get on. We will not be moving out of Ennis, this is our home town."

Ennis has been without a serviced permanent halting site since 1997. The council recently started work on a permanent halting site for six families, although it is not expected to be open until early next year. The site is part of a necklace of sites to be developed under the council's Traveller Accommodation Plan. The council has recently secured planning for a second six-bay site.