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The banner facing Pearse Square advertising the International Poetry Festival which took place on the August Bank Holiday weekend was still up on Wednesday. Festival organiser Gene Barry has received a €150 litter fine from the town council for leaving the banner up. Photo: Ellen Lynch

The organiser of Fermoy's International Poetry Festival, Gene Barry, was fuming this week after being hit with a €150 litter fine for not taking the festival banner down.

The festival organiser has taken severe umbrage at what he sees as an unnecessarily heavy-handed approach by Fermoy Town Council.

The banner was erected high on the building facing into Pearse Square some days before the international literary event took place on the August bank holiday weekend.

Gene Barry told The Avondhu this week the contractor who'll be taking down the banner is waiting on a cherry picker to do it.  He's expecting it to be removed by the end of the week. He said he was particularly annoyed by the manner in which news of the litter fine was conveyed to him.

"I got a call from a blocked number saying I'd be fined. I only found out later the call was from the litter warden." He said he rang the town hall no less than 14 times in an attempt to contact the town clerk to discuss the matter. He claims none of his calls were returned.

He says he was taken aback and insulted to subsequently receive the fine, charging him with defacement of a building. It was all the more ironic, he said, given that he had received correspondence in the same week from some of the internationally renowned poets who had attend the festival this year, congratulating him on such a well organised event and saying how much they had enjoyed the festival and their visit to Fermoy.

It was the second year the event was held. Run on a shoestring budget, the imposition of the €150 fine is a severe blow, Gene says, but it is the message it sends out that he finds the most offensive.

"You organise an international festival bringing a large number of visitors to the town, providing a much-needed shot in the arm to local business and tourism and this is what you get in return," he fumed.

Town Clerk Pauline Moriarty was contacted by The Avondhu fon the matter but, she said, she could not comment on individual litter fines.

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