LIMERICK’S poor auld Mayor John Moran never gets a moment’s peace without one of the crabby snipers over on the Fine Gael benches taking a potshot at him. And talk about stealing the man’s thunder!
Moran’s parade was rained all over last week as he signed a mayoral order to complete the disposal of approximately 31-acres of local authority-owned land at Ballygrennan on the western edge of Moyross. The joint development with Cluid Housing and Whitebox was deemed a “game-changer” for the Council estate, to be known as ‘Greenhills’.
A good news day for Limerick, but stop the lights and clear the line — there’s people in City North already unhappy about the mixed-use development’s nom de plume.
Fine Gael councillor Olivia O’Sullivan was first out of the traps to express her displeasure. Forget about improving quality of life in Moyross or attracting further investment to give people access to the high quality services and infrastructure they deserve. Won’t somebody please think of the moniker?
Cllr O’Sullivan was none too happy when she learned the Council was bandying ‘Greenhills’ around as the chosen eponym for the development. Clearly the Mayor and his cronies were not thinking straight, and she did not like the idea of them not using their noggins in front of the neighbours.
Don’t mind that the disposal of some 31 acres of Council-owned land will become home to a mixed-use development of residential units, neighbourhood centre, nursing home, and medical facility. It’s the bleeding name that’s got all her hyacinths in a bucket.
“Did anybody in the Council stop to consider that we already have a Greenhills in the Northside? Which is home to a very successful family-owned hotel and leisure centre, and is the location of the home pitch of Caherdavin Celtic FC, as every local soccer fixture list will testify,” Cllr O’Sullivan protested.
“One Greenhills in the Northside is enough. By duplicating this name we are only going to cause confusion between people travelling for the medical facilities, hotel, or soccer fixtures.”
“This is not the first time this part of the Northside suburbs in the Ennis Road area has had a naming issue which the Council should have spotted,” she went on, and on.
“When the UPMC Hospital was first announced, I raised the fact the location was being described as ‘lands at Coonagh’, when in actual fact the lands are in Ballygrennan or Moyross.”
This, too, she chimed, has caused some confusion, with the incorrect location appearing in UPMC communication since.
Cllr O’Sullivan is not against the new Moyross development going ahead, in fact, she would just prefer to see the name changed to something else instead of ‘Greenhills’, to avoid any ongoing confusion, of course.
The lady of the house is not for turning. It’s a matter of complete indifference to the Caherdavin woman whether the milk is pasteurised, immunised, sterilised, or privatised, just don’t name it after a certain Ennis Road hotel.
As the great WC Fields once said: “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”
