Letter to Editor Sept 2007

Loro Gate – Geata Lárach

Loro Gate

To The County Manager

Galway County Council, Council Buildings

Prospect Hill, Galway

A chara,

We, the undersigned, are all members of various representative bodies in Athenry including the Athenry Development Company, the Athenry Community Council, Galway East Tourism, The Tidy Towns Committee, The Athenry Area Development Company etc., and we are also stakeholders on the Galway County Council sponsored Athenry Walled Towns Steering Committee.

We are writing to you in connection with the recent discovery through road works of the remains of the so-called ‘Loro Gate’ at Swangate in Athenry. We would like you to call an emergency meeting of the Athenry Walled Towns Steering Committee. This committee is chaired by your Heritage Officer, Marie Mannion; I will be sending a copy of this faxed letter to Marie Mannion.

Our concern is that the developers, Hickey Homes Limited, have started to work at this roundabout again. The works had stopped immediately after the discovery of the archaeological remains. However, in recent days the developer has started to work on the site. We are very concerned that the significance of this discovery has not been recognised, and that the developer is pressing ahead with the roundabout as it was originally designed.

You can be assured that the Athenry Community is speaking with one voice when we ask for these remains to be properly excavated, and allowed to be presented to the public in a meaningful way. We would like to have the opportunity of an emergency meeting of the Athenry Walled Towns Steering Committee to put our proposals to this committee.

In the meantime, I would ask that you would ensure the protection of this National Monument by asking the developer to stop all work on the site until such time, as an informed decision about the protection, preservation and presentation of this important discovery has been agreed by the Athenry Walled Towns Steering Committee.

Yours sincerely: Tadhg Costello, Des Glynn, Madelyn Brody, Nick Hithcox, Aideen Rynne, Finbarr O’Regan, Professor Etienne Rynne and Dominic Monaghan