A huge congratulations today to Kathryn Daly and all involved with the Letterkenny Educate Together group, as their school has been officially sanctioned to open in Letterkenny in September.

Educate Together Schools are multi-denominational, parent-led schools with a strong focus on inclusion and bringing children of differing religious, cultural and social backgrounds together. After the development of Letterkenny in recent years, most people would agree that this new school is very welcome, and fills a real need locally.

Kathryn, together with a very hard working committee, have put a huge effort in to this project. They have more than 40 children registered to start in September, and are now working to finalise a location for the school. I’m sure they will be as succesful in that as they have been at every stage of this project.

Update: More information on Educate Together is available on their website.

Following on from yesterday’s Derry People Donegal News front page story, there was a discussion today on Highland Radio about Letterkenny Town Council’s decision to erect a Celtic Cross at the Cathedral Car Park, which would also feature an image of Pope John Paul II. This decision is being questioned, as the Car Park is also outside the local Church of Ireland Church, and a Presbyterian Parish Hall (Trinity Hall).

I was not at the meeting when this decision was taking (I attended at the start, but had to leave as the meeting took place during my exams), but the minutes are available here on this website Scroll down to “MONUMENT – CATHEDRAL CAR PARK”, 5 points from the very end. I have also spoken to many other councillors and officials about this, and have spoken on Highland this morning about the issue.

This decision was taken shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II, and was intended to mark his contribution to life in modern Ireland. That said, I also respect the position that this image may cause offence in such a public position, and support the idea that we should be erecting a piece to show our shared history, and the common parts of our cultures.

I have proposed that we arrange a meeting between representatives of the council, and all the parties in the Cathedral Car Park, to discuss this issue and seek a resolution. I hope to arrange this for early next week.

As I said on Highland Radio today, I would particularly like to thank Rev Stuart Wright for his response to this issue. Rev Wright has always been very approachable, and he has dealt with this issue in a very proactive and measured way.

If you have any comments or questions about this issue, please either post them here or get in contact with me directly.

Update (Feb 28th 2006): An innacurate report in today’s Donegal Democrat claims that I have “confirmed” that the Pope’s image will be removed from the cross. This is not true; I confirmed that I will be meeting members of the clergy and outlined that it would be possible to replace the middle section, on which the Pope’s image currently is. The council will decide on this issue on March 8th. I’d also like to highlight that it was never the intention of the council for the Pope’s image to appear on the cross. There has been a substantial breakdown in communication on this issue, one which we are moving to address as quickly as possible.

Update (March 3rd 2006): This story is close to being resolved. At the next council meeting (Wednesday March 8th) I will be proposing that we replace the section with Pope John Paul’s image with a section done similar to the rest of the Cross, and that the image of Pope John Paul be donated to the Catholic Diocese of Raphoe. I am confident this will be accepted by the members; I have discussed it with representatives of the Catholic Church, Church of Ireland and Trinity Presbyterian Church, and they all accept the proposal. The story has been featured on Radio on Highland, BBC Radio Foyle, BBC Radio Ulster, RTE Radio 1 and in many of Ireland’s national papers. We’ve moved to resolve this situation as quickly as possible, and I hope it will be finalised next week.

Letterkenny Town Council has just started a period of public consultation on a proposed addition to the Letterkenny & Environs Development Plan, 2003-2009. The plan relates to the development of the lands in the “area of Town Centre extension”- the lands bounded between the Pearse Road, Port Road and River Swilly.

The plan proposes a number of important developments in the area, relating to public walkways, open spaces and commercial developement, and sets the guidelines for all future development in the area.

The plan provides a number of exciting opportunities for the the development of the town, most notably the “Railway Square” public space. The plans can be inspected at the Town Council Offices, at the Public Services Centre on Neil T Blaney Road. Some information is available online at the Donegal County Council website, including this map of the area (3mb, PDF)

I’d encourage everyone with an interest in the development of the town to visit and inspect the plans. The Consultation Process will be open for submissions until the end of the month, and all submissions will be considered.

On Monday December 12th I attended the prizegiving for the 2005 Irish Business Against Litter Litter-League, to collect an award for Letterkenny.

The Town ranked “Litter Free”, the highest category possible. This is testimony to all the hard work undertaken by so many in the town to ensure that Letterkenny is among the best presented, most attractive towns in Ireland.

Together with our recent Gold Medal in the Tidy Towns contest, this shows how well Letterkenny is doing in the National ranks. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we can be sure that our Goal of winning the Largest Town category in the Tidy Towns is very reachable.

Pictured above are Minister Batt O’Keefe (left) and IBAL’s Dr Tom Cavanagh presenting me with Letterkenny Litter-Free award