Local councillors voted in favour this week for the plans for a carpark in Doneraile on the site of a former abattoir, on lands donated by the O’Keeffe family. Parking facilities in the village are widely considered inadequate for both residents and visitors; in 2023 almost 524,000 visitors made their way to Doneraile Park, as well as the fact that locally there is no carpark for the like of church and village centre visitors.
The abattoir (which dates from the 1960s) and other buildings will be demolished, and 25 car parking spaces, two of which will facilitate disabled drivers, will be installed in its place, which is close to one of the gates to the entrance to Doneraile Park and Estate. The front wall, with its mural, will also be demolished to some controversy, and other walls built on the periphery of the land, as well as bollards on the footpath. Recycling bins will also be placed in the new carpark.
In public submissions to the plans, the chair of the Mural Restoration Project, Margaret Rourke, expressed her ‘complete disappointment’ that the mural wall will be moved saying the action had ‘come out of the blue’.
Full story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition
