BOLLARDS PLACED to prevent jarvey carriages without requisite dung-catchers from entering the Killarney National Park were removed yesterday, and jarveys were admitted for the first time in nine months to the 15km of tourist trails where they ply their trade.
The discreet black dung-catching device, barely noticeable and extending from underneath the horse’s tail to the jaunting car, has been the subject of two years of wrangling, picketing and legal proceedings in which the jarveys argued they were unsafe and they had a right to operate without them. The legal actions included a High Court challenge taken by a group of 37 of the Killarney town jarveys questioning the authority of the National Parks and Wildlife Service to force them to fit them.
Two weeks ago, however, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie comprehensively ruled against the jarveys, saying the service had a duty to manage the park for the public.
Management locked the jarveys out of the park last September, after two years of seeking to persuade them to at least try the devices which they were providing free.
About six jarveys have not yet fitted the devices. One, Diarmuid Cronin, said this group were mostly trap-owners and were worried about health and safety.
A spokesman said his group was donning the devices on a trial basis and had lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court.