Pages

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Shannon Flooding - Seanad Speaks Again!




Tom Parlon Promised Shannon Authority

from paudie safe high up in johnnie foxes;

Loki brought you the seanad debate of 1978 dealing with Shannon flooding.
It doesn't stop there, oh no. In 2004, Senator Bannon (who he?), a Fine Gael lackie, divested himself of the following; "In the run-up to the last general election, we heard a great deal of thunder from the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, about the draining of the River Shannon and the establishment of a Shannon authority. Counties Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath and Offaly were severely hit by downpours of rain yesterday and last night. There have been many cases of serious flooding in the region over the past 50 years or more. When he was Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera promised to drain the Shannon. The Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, gave a commitment to establish a Shannon authority, but we have heard little about it since he became Minister of State with responsibility for that area. The Minister of State needs to come to the House as a matter of urgency to update Senators on his plans to bring all the parties which are interested in the Shannon together to try to develop a better system of management of the river system. Thousands of acres of land in the midlands are flooded when the Shannon breaches its banks, causing great inconvenience to farmers and the public in villages in close proximity to the river."

Who says the Seanad is irrelevant? Stuff and nonsense.

5 comments:

eddiestack.com said...

from Steve Dan's, Cahermore:
what have they all against the Shannon? the government won't drain the water, Aer Lingus won't use d'airport, Ryanair want to steal it....Is there any hope? When I think about the Cliffs of Doneen and all the other lovely songs about our majestick river I curl into a ball on the floor and weep...sometimes for days. If t'wasn't for the Shannon, there would be no Clare, no Kerry...no nothing...no ferry from Tarbert to bring the lads across to the coursings and the fleadhs. we need a campaign to save the Shannon...before some smart fucker from Roscommon or Offaly bottles it..

ian said...

If there was no Shannon, there would be no-one West of it, which would be like having no Liffey and no one on DNS. Irish social history would be changed irrevocably.

Incidentally, whatever happened to Mr Parlon? Did he live happily ever after?

Kerryview said...

>eddie. I do remember o'neills in the allihies and another small pub with a telly high up. with no shannon we would be directly connected to co clare, no greater need for the shannon. landing in killimer is like landing on the moon on a sunday morning.

Kerryview said...

>ian. see previous comment. are you comparing DNS or TSS with the west?
parlon is an excellent judge of frying pans. he jumped from the pds to the construction industry. removed himself from the gene pool.

ian said...

West of the Shannon is, of course,comparable to TSS. The loss of the Shannon would mean 'It's a long, long way from Clare to here' could no longer be sung in North Kerry.