Sir, - Damien Flinter's letter of January 11th is an excellent example of the muddled thinking that has left the Dodder at Rathfarnham in the ghastly state it is in today, not to mention other areas of south County Dublin.
The encampment that was set up on the Dodder at Rathfarnham could best be described as a bizarre business park that lasted for many months and is not yet in receivership. It numbered over 100 caravans at peak, and rarely fewer than 40 - not exactly a lone caravan on the village green with a wisp of smoke emerging from a crooked chimney. The "marginalised and dispossessed families" whom Mr Flinter speaks of were largely trader/travellers from many different parts of Ireland and the UK, as shown by the registration plates and business logos on their vans. They were not just "disposing of our post-consumption durables", as Mr Flinter put it, but doing profitable work: paving driveways, cutting hedges and clearing gardens, roofing, replacing gutters, putting cowls on chimneys, etc. Waste material from this work, together with old furniture, TVs, radiators, sinks, central-heating oil tanks,and so on, was then dumped in the Dodder to join the dozens of cars pushed in there from the car- stripping businesses which were also being operated on the river bank.
It is obvious that Mr Flinter saw none of this, but still feels free to castigate the real victims of this invasion, the people who live nearby.
He did not have to listen to the scores of generators running at night. He did not witness the frequent visits of the fire service to extinguish the fires that killed many mature trees and threatened others. He did not have to endure the exclusion and intimidation of those who had regularly enjoyed this natural amenity. He did not have to look on as the once carefully maintained green areas were changed to fields of mud decorated with rubbish of every description. And then there was the toileting for hundreds of people for the best part of a year. The mind boggles.
But I'm sure Mr Fainter would find a way to blame, as he puts it, the dominant landowning population for not being foresighted enough to make appropriate provision for the visiting business people whenever and wherever they dropped in. He will undoubtedly be pleased to know that residents will be paying through their taxes for the brand new concrete walls under construction and for the massive clean-up that is now under way.
Serves us right, Mr Flinter! - Yours, etc.,
T. MURPHY,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.