Travellers camp at gates of sailing club

A war of words has broken out between Greystones Sailing Club in Co Wicklow and a number of Travelling families who have established an unauthorised halting site at the club gates.

The Travellers, who arrived in three caravans in early March, are located 100 yards from another unauthorised camp of six caravans which have been camped on the seaside road since the beginning of last winter.

The commodore of the sailing club, Mr Paul Sunderland, said the club has been forced to cancel a number of sail training weekends as the trainees, mainly young adults, would have had to push their boats and trailers between the caravans to get to the shore.

Unusually for this time of year, the club had no boats in its compound yesterday, and Mr Sunderland said members were reluctant to bring cars and trailers on the narrow road where the Travellers' children played.

He also claimed the clubhouse had been hit by flying stones, and because of this members would be reluctant to leave their boats in the compound.

He said there had been incidents between the club members and the Travellers on St Patrick's Day and yesterday, but insisted the club stance was not anti-Traveller. "It is awkward for us, but it is also awkward for the Travellers. They really should be housed or provided with a halting site," he said.

However a Traveller, Mr Mark O'Toole, who was at the site yesterday afternoon, told The Irish Times the Travellers had done nothing to upset the club.

Mr O'Toole, who lives in one of the three caravans with his partner, Ms Brigid Cash, is originally from Arklow but the extended family, which also has links to settled Travellers in the Bray area, has in the past camped at Old Long Hill on the side of the Great Sugarloaf mountain.

In recent years Wicklow County Council has closed caravan access to the car-park at the Sugarloaf.

Mr O'Toole said a house in Arklow supplied by the council had become uninhabitable, citing problems with the electricity supply, sewage and broken windows.

Sgt Fred Brennan said the "biggest item on the agenda" in Greystones was the situation at the north beach. The Garda had received complaints about criminal damage to a car, intimidation and noise in the early hours of the morning.

Sgt Brennan said a number of arrests were made by local gardai, supported by gardai from Dublin, early yesterday. Mr O'Toole was not among those arrested.

A spokesman for Wicklow County Council, Mr Liam Fitzpatrick, said the council was trying to get the Travellers to move back to Arklow. The council was assessing the condition of the house there which was on a three-quarter-acre site.

He said the council believed the house was habitable but would be assessing if "normal maintenance" needed to be carried out. A housing officer from the council also visited the camp in Greystones yesterday to discuss the situation with the extended family.