Sligo manager says ‘door open’ to Lissadell estate owners

The Sligo county manager has said his door is open to the owners of the Lissadell estate, and that he was hopeful the “fantastic facility” would reopen to the public.

At a special meeting today to discuss the fallout from the legal battle over rights of way at the Co Sligo estate, Ciaran Hayes also said the council would do its best to facilitate the owners if, for example, they wanted to have more concerts on the estate.

He told councillors he could not give a guarantee that such a dispute would not happen again. Mr Hayes said the issue had implications for every local authority in the State and implications for legislation. Councillors were told there was a legal onus on the council to defend rights of way.

Building bridges
After a number of councillors urged that the council be more proactive in building bridges, Mr Hayes said he would have no problem in approaching the owners, and a motion urging him to do so was passed.

The meeting was held following the release of a statement from owners Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy that described a report prepared by officials on the legal background to the case as "a whitewash".

Last November, the Supreme Court found in favour of the owners and overturned a High Court ruling that rights of way existed on four avenues through the estate, the ancestral home of 1916 leader Constance Markievicz.

Mr Hayes told the meeting the council’s costs in the matter were likely to exceed €2 million and some legal bills had been paid from an overdraft. He said the owners would furnish a legal bill to the council, which is liable for 75 per cent of their costs, estimated at up to €7 million. In the absence of agreement it would be referred to the taxing master and could take up to two years to be finalised.

The estate was regarded as one of the leading tourist attractions in the northwest, but it has been closed since 2009. Today, the couple said no decision had been made about its future.

Labour councillor Jim McGarry said the family deserved an apology from Sligo County Council. They were parents and children who had made Lissadell a home, he said. "They put their heart and soul into creating something for the good of the people of Sligo and were treated appallingly," he said.

What had happened was heartbreaking, Mr McGarry said. “Lissadell is now closed, and has been for the past five years,” he said, adding that it had been a tourist attraction that brought more than 40,000 visitors a year to Sligo.

In December 2008 the county council had passed a motion to amend its county development plan aimed at protecting public rights of way along four routes at Lissadell.

Heckled
Fine Gael councillor Joe Leonard, who had proposed the motion, was heckled by Mr McGarry as he told colleagues his conscience was clear.

“I did the right thing. I would do exactly the same again,” said Mr Leonard, adding he had acted in the interests of the local community.

“I applaud the strenuous and repeated efforts by Sligo County Council to achieve a negotiated settlement,” he said.

Mr Leonard told the sometimes heated meeting the Supreme Court’s decision to completely reverse the High Court ruling was “in the eyes of the community, and in my own opinion, unbelievable”. He said the ruling on costs was “equally mystifying to any reasonable observer”.

Seán MacManus of Sinn Féin said the council could not wait for an approach from the owners but had to “extend a hand to the Walsh-Cassidy family, even at this late juncture”.