SCAVENGER birds wheel around "Higgins's Hill" as Limerick city's tiphead rises upwards to the sky day by day. Unofficial surveyors now put it at 70 feet high.
The long pavement dump is considered a festering open sore and has been the scene of public protest by patiently suffering residents in Limerick city and across the Clare border in Parteen. It is now well past its sell by date.
Not too long ago, this was flat, open not very aesthetic waste ground across the road from the city dump. The latter was duly closed and today is a soccer pitch provided by the local authority.
The relocated dump was only temporary until a new site was found. But finding a suitable band acceptable landfill site today is like the quest for the crock of gold at the end of that elusive rainbow. The people of East Limerick are currently objecting strenuously to a proposed landfill site in the scenic Slieve Felim area.
The theme song for officialdom could very well run something like this: "We seek it here; we seek it there; that damn elusive tip somewhere."
The former Limerick City Manager, Jack Higgins, is now safely ensconced as Cork City manager, but has left his name, indelibly printed in Limerick city's rubbish. Affable Jack who got the dump tagged after him can hardly be blamed for the city's dump hump and must have been grateful to have fled the slings and arrows of an outraged populace.
Close to the Shannon
Once upon a time there used to be a clear view across to the city's suburb of Corbally and Gus O'Driscoll's pub, owned, by a former mayor of the city. People who bought houses in upmarket Mill Road didn't bargain for a view of rubbish movers and scavenger birds wheeling around. The tiphead is also perilously close to the River Shannon and some would say it is seeping into it.
The residents of Ballynanty, Moyross and Parteen protest in bursts. There is no attempt by officialdom to rubbish their claims for closure - there is just nowhere to put a permanent tiphead. The corporation says it will send its rubbish to the Co Limerick landfill site at Croom. There's a prospect of corporation trucks trundling along the main Cork road through Patrickswell and Croom. Will residents there people object? And Croom dump is nearing its end too.
There could be still a crock of gold at the top of Higgins's Hill as Limerick hails its manmade mountain. After all, the people of Nepal are coining it with traffic jams of people waiting to climb Mount Everest. The city fathers are, like all local authorities, strapped for cash, and this would be a real, new, ready made tourism product. The scenario cameraladen Japanese tourists clambering all over Higgins's Hill with the sweetener of a round of golf at any of the excellent courses nearby and no waiting list for using the driving ranges under floodlights.
Boundary extension
Maybe all is not lost for the members of the corporation in their anguished search for an alternative tiphead. They have brought controversy around their heads with a proposed boundary extension of the city into Co Limerick and Co Clare. Acquiring a slice of Clare, which by coincidence would border the long pavement tiphead, would enable Limerick Corporation to negotiate for Clare swamp land adjacent to the dump. Voila the dump problem would be solved for years to come.
A new group called Clare Against Boundary Extension (CABE) believes the dump problem is the real reason for wanting Clare land.
In November 1973 there were strong moves by Limerick Corporation to petition the Minister for Local Government for permission to extend the city boundary into Parteen and its hinterland. The history and follow of Parteen and Meelick, written by Donal O Riain and Seamus O Cinneide, describes a meeting held in "The Travellers Bar", better known as Larkin's, which was attended by a dozen local citizens including the former MEP and President of the Irish Farmers' Association, Paddy Lane. The assembly decided unanimously to oppose any encroachment into their territory and, according to the book, "were supported in their opposition by regular customers Gordon Wood and John Droog and by other bystanders who made fitting contributions to the assembly." The late Gordon Wood will be remembered as the former Irish international rugby player whose son, Keith, is now following in his father's footsteps.
The meeting was organised by the Parteen hurling club, which outlined plans for a massive protest meeting in the Two Mile Inn on Wednesday, November 17th, 1973.
Noise and pollution
It was felt that the extension to the boundary "would upset historical situations and encroach on the peace of the inhabitants. It would bring noise, traffic and pollution to a quiet residential and farming area.
"The sporting, cultural and traditional way of life would also be adversely affected, not alone in Parteen but also in adjoining parishes of Clonlara, Meelick, Truagh, and Cratloe where this first move is being seen as the thin end of the wedge."
A committee was formed with James Madden, Hugh McGrath and John O'Brien installed as officers. A local referendum was held in Coonagh, Meelick, and Parteen. Only those over 18 were entitled to vote. The number of valid votes cast was 387 and of these 376 voted "No" to the extension and eleven voted Yes.
Now, 23 years later, a new committee has been formed to fight the extension at a meeting in Brown's Lounge, Parteen, attended by over 300 people. There are a good few thousand more people living in the area today with new housing estates and private dwellings having sprung up over the past 20 years. There are many with no loyalties to the area, yet there are Limerick born natives on the committee. What would be the result of a referendum today?