Thursday, September 03, 2009

Locals express difficulties on making Clonmacnoise a World Heritage site

A meeting to discuss the proposed bid to make one of the country’s most famous ecclesiastical sites a World Heritage Site was brought to a temporary halt recently, after around 200 people staged a walk out at the Athlone Springs Hotel.

Several landowners near Clonmacnoise in County Offaly angrily told the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government as well as the Office of Public Works that they had "no right" to tell locals how to live their lives and they accused them of trying to "railroad" them through the submission.

They suggested that the officials in their Dublin offices were not qualified to understand what life was like for landowners in the affected region. One Department official was even accused of being patronising in his responses.

Under the Draft Management plan, which is to be submitted to UNESCO the world heritage body plan, farming would be prohibited in a buffer zone around the site, a zone local Senator Pat Moylan described as been excessively large.

He claimed, “Normal farming practices must be allowed continue in the area.”

There are also concerns that an extension to the graveyard in Clonmacnoise, which lies on the River Shannon may also be, prohibited meaning that people will not be able to be buried with relatives.

The OPW is expected to review all submissions made over the coming weeks.

The Early Christian site founded by St. Ciarán in the mid-6th century was put forward for World Heritage Status because the site includes the ruins of a cathedral, seven churches (10th -13th century), two round towers, three high crosses and the largest collection of Early Christian grave slabs in Western Europe.
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