Nulty Quarry Application to be opposed

cavan | environment | news report Wednesday November 30, 2005 20:55 by Michael Lynch - Red Branch Heritage redbranch at oceanfree dot net

Red Branch Heritage to oppose quarry extension

Cavan based quarry firm John Nulty Limited have finally submitted a formal Planning Application with Cavan County Council to further expand their quarry at Ardkill More mountain, Carrickaboy, Co. Cavan.

John Nulty Quarry, on Ardkill Mountain

The application lodged with the planning authority on Wednesday 23rd of November seeks to expand the area of the quarry by 3.37 hectares. The Nulty quarry destroyed Two hundred yards of a protected monument knowen as the Black Pig’s Race or Dyke in the past.
John O’Reilly chairman of Cavan heritage group Red Branch Heritage stated that his group would be strongly opposing any further expansion of the Ardkill quarry.
Mr. O’Reilly stated that R.B.H . had set out clearly in their Denn Heritage Report of 2004 that the only realistic avenue to protect both the Black Pig’s Dyke and the beauty of Ardkill mountain was for the company to source an alternative site and wind down the Ardkill quarry operation. Nothing we have heard since then has changed our position he said.
Red Branch Heritage secretary Susan Hayes has also called on Cavan County Manager, Mr. Jack Keyes to carry out an enquiry into how Cavan County Council Planning Authority twice granted planning permission during the nineteen seventies and eighties for the Ardkill quarry and thus allowed a large section of the Black Pig’s Race to be completely destroyed.
Miss Hayes said the council was adopting an ostrich approach to what had occurred in the past on no one was prepared to take responsibility for this disgraceful event, the wanton destruction of a national monument.
“ We will be making a strong submission opposing this application,” stated Miss Hayes.
“We are most concerned that a cosy arrangement exists between John Nulty Limited and Cavan County Council. Nultys continue to supply material from Ardkill quarry on a daily basis to Cavan County Council” Susan Hayes concluded.
A decision from Cavan Planning Authority on the Nulty application is due on January 26th 2006.