Diary Opinion: Who Rules the Valley?

Following cleanups of litter, and repairs made after vandalism at St Brigid's Well in the Valley Park recently, depredation in the area hasn't abated.



During this past weekend the well was filled with rubbish, and a pair of big blue containers were brought to be used as seats by those drinking there (maybe the owners of the containers will recognise them and retrieve them?).





Empty beer cans were also tossed into the bushes surrounding the well area.



In addition a campfire was set at the town end of the park, right in the middle of the pathway. And the now-usual collections of empty Carling and Bavaria cans and other detritus were also dumped at various points of the banking down to the river, which will become sights of landfill proportions once the grass withers for the winter.



The situation has reached the stage where local people who have been cleaning up the park on a voluntary basis are no longer prepared to do so.

"We've even been finding used condoms on our trips through now," one told the Diary last week. And on this Sunday morning, with garbage left all over the place, the Kildare County Council bin at the townside entrance was practically empty.



Vandalism and damage to the Valley are nothing new. A perusal of Thirty Years of The Bridge will find a number of such instances recorded in the pages of the magazine, some of them by this writer.

But in recent times it seems to be getting worse, with public drinking going on night and day, resulting in related littering and damage.



One local resident made an official complaint to the gardai in the middle of the past week, and was assured that the park would receive garda attention. But on Saturday night, a typical time for the weekend shenanigans, there was either no such attention or the gardai failed to notice what was going on.

"I'd like to know how many people they got for going over 50 km/h coming into the town from the Nicholastown in the last month," another longtime resident told the Diary, "and then I'd like them to say how many people they've arrested for illegal behaviour at night time in our town over the whole summer, specifically in the Valley."

Vandalism is illegal. So is littering. So too is public drinking in the Valley, on foot of a by-law passed by Kildare County Council some years ago. All are offences punishable by substantial fines.

But while Kilcullen Tidy Towns as an organisation and a number of individuals on their own merit do their best to maintain one of the town's core leisure facilities as part of their overall commitment to the community in which they live, there seems to be a distinct lack of direct action on the part of the various authorities charged with maintaining the laws that pertain there.

Kilcullen has a new garda sergeant. Helping the people of the town to regain their main park might well be his most important immediate challenge, and equally an opportunity to establish his credentials as a proactive guardian of the community.

The County Council in the seventies, according to the annals of The Bridge, gave up on dealing with litter and vandalism in the Valley. But today it has a Litter Warden.

A combined visit by both the gardai and the warden on any weekend night, or even better, several nights, with accompanying resolute action, could fix the problem in very short order.

Otherwise, what's the point of the law?

And the answer to that question in the current discussion could be an appalling vista.

The Diary has the names of people quoted in this report, but in each case they asked not to be identified publicly. That is understandable and permissable, but in itself also begs the question posed in the title of this editorial. It suggests that Kilcullen residents already feel open to retaliation if they speak out.

'When the good do nothing, evil will prevail' is a version of a long-standing common saying.

When the good don't get the support of the authorities they elect and pay for, who can blame them for giving up?

And maybe leaving the space for the kneecappers to move in and become the 'community protectors'.

That's not so far-fetched. They did it elsewhere, as a very successful ploy to gain the electoral support of decent people who have felt let down by the authorities, and the proper politicians who should be supporting them.

Talk to the new local law, guys. And talk to your County Council.

And, most important, don't stop walking the streets and the Valley, especially at night.

Otherwise both are no longer ours.

Brian Byrne.