Great show of support for Clonakilty Market

I meant to post this right after the event. It’s not really news now, but for anyone who missed the public meeting regarding the Clonakilty market last week (and that won’t be many I know), it was tremendously positive. Over 90 people attended, most had to stand at the back of the room, some were left in the corridor, listening attentively. Mick Hanly, chaired and very well too – if there had been any dissenting voices in the room it was clear that he would have been up to the task of affording them space to be heard. But as he said himself “The first thing you find out if you’re going to a duck shoot in West Cork is ‘who’s the duck?'”. There was no-one present willing to put a case against the market. The absence of the 4 who voted against the proposal was a real source of dissappointment, even anger, for most of those in the room. The feeling was that the people of the town had elected these people to represent the interests of the town not themselves. It’s fair to say that there was a high degree of frustration among many at the meeting at the ability of a few individuals to block what appears to be the will of everyone else. Even the Mayor, Michael O’Regan, who had missed the vote, was prepared to say that no-one in Clonakilty was opposed to the market in principle. One or two of the traders expressed their cynicism about local authorities and argued that the only way forward was to force the issue through continued trading on the basis of ancient market rights. I do not think this is the way to go. For one thing, a victory for this initiative would defeat the Casual Trading Act and result in an unregulated market – anyone could come in and sell anything, without paying any license fee. It would not be the food market that Clonakilty wants. And besides, local democracy can only work if people are willing to make it work rather than try and exploit weaknesses in legislation to subvert it. I’m glad to say that this was the outcome of the meeting. It was agreed to send a delegation to present the market proposal again and that the coucillors present would all support a new motion. The town council meeting to discuss the motion will be held next Tuesday September 2 in the Town Hall at 7pm and as Cllr Anthony McDermot said “There’s nothing like people power”. There is an open invitation for people to attend and observe the meeting (some 30 can be seated, but more could show their support outside the meeting). Attendees cannot speak but the 3 person delegation will have the opportunity to represent the views of the townspeople as expressed at the public meeting. See my post above for details of the motion.

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