This article is from page 31 of the 2013-01-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
A PROBLEM resident was accused of taunting neighbours plagued by anti-social behaviour in November by claiming he would buy their homes if they want to leave a troubled estate.
The man, a convicted criminal, made the claim in a letter delivered to homes in the estate in Ennis.
Residents suffered numerous instances of anti-social behaviour and raised their concerns in a meeting with senior Gardaí in Ennis during in October.
The situation got so bad for one mortgage payer that it was claimed that he has been forced to leave the area to live in another part of Ennis. Other residents are also believed to be considering leaving.
The typed letter was hand delivered by members of the man’s family to certain homes in the estate.
In it the man boasted that he could afford to purchase homes in the estate and give them to members of his family.
In the letter he refers to a wide circle of cousins who he would like to see move into the estate, if his neighbours felt they wanted to leave.
The letter was delivered after a local newsletter highlighted the pres- ence of Garda patrols in the area.
A delegation of residents of the estate had raised their concerns during a meeting at Ennis Garda Station. The week after this report a Traveller resident in that Ennis estate hit back at what he said was racism at work.
The man rubbished claims by residents that he had been the cause of anti-social behaviour in the estate since he moved some months ago, or that he had been the reason a person moved out of the estate.
“The only thing that’s happened in the five months I’m living there is the young kids took a football and kicked it around the green.
“Children is children. That’s been the size of it,” he said.
The man, who admitted that he had sent a letter to some residents in the estate offering to buy their houses if they wanted to sell, told us that the letter was ‘sarcastic’ in parts.
“I was sarcastic in the letter. I admit that. The bit about the horses eating the grass was sarcastic. I know that.
“But they think they’re better than me. They haven’t taken the time to get to know me. They judged me because I’m a Traveller. And that’s racist,” he says.
The letter he had hand delivered to some of the residents in the estate invited them to have a cup of the tea with him.