BYLAWS ARE to be introduced to regulate bad busking in Killarney. This follows complaints from office workers and businesses in the town centre of poor playing and monotonous tunes played over and over for up to six hours on screeching instruments.
Killarney town clerk Michael O’Leary said some businesses, all ratepayers, were finding it difficult “to transact business due to the sounds created by the buskers”.
He said there were several complaints to the town hall and the council was being asked to amend the town bylaws.
A meeting of Killarney Town Council heard this was not a request to outlaw busking altogether, particularly if the music was good. It was a complex issue in a tourist town, but the particular difficulty was during the day.
Killarney town councillor John O’Donoghue said a man with a tin whistle was playing the same tune at the same corner every day, and office workers were being driven to the edge of sanity.
He did not know the name of the tune.
“Busking adds to the character of the town, but there’s a big difference between someone playing the same tune for six hours on a tin whistle and busking,” Mr O’Donoghue added. “Anyone in an office would go mad.”
The practice of other cities, particularly Galway, should be examined in Killarney, with certain locations designated as busking sites. “I feel so sorry for businesses who have to put up with this,” he said.
Other councillors described some of the so-called busking taking place in Killarney as “Chinese torture”, nuisance and simply noise.
The council meeting heard that where buskers took on other buskers was the worst scenario of all.
It was claimed there were instances of competition between buskers in Killarney as to who could last the longest and play the loudest.