Attack on community say fair organisers

Sean McMahon
in Tullyvin

Organisers of the Tullyvin Fair have described as “an attack on community” the setting fire to a straw edifice they erected to advertise the event to take place over the forthcoming May Bank Holiday weekend.
The creative 'High Nellie’ structure, made of large bales of straw, was erected just outside the village on the main Tullyvin to Cootehill Road.
However arsonists struck shortly after 10.30pm on Monday night and the Cootehill Fire Brigade was called to the scene to extinguish the fire. It’s thought given that the bales were wet and very tightly compacted that the arsonists used some type of accelerant to torch the edifice.

'Bigger and better’
However organisers are determined that this act of vandalism will not deter their efforts to promote the community festival. Committee member Aidan Fitzpatrick said those responsible for setting alight to the bales “had little to do”.
“Their activity will not deter the Tullyvin committee and we are going to erect the eye-catching structure again and it will be bigger and better,” he said.
The edifice had become a stopping point for some motorists with children who wished to have their photograph taken standing in front of it.
Aidan pledged that 'Nellie Two’ is on the way to the village green within the next 24 hours.
Another committee member Loreto McMenamin said the fire was “an attack on the community”.
She remarked: “It was not just burning bales. Here we have people doing voluntary work for our community. Their activity will not deter us. We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and we will be going ahead and re-building it bigger and better than ever.”
The committee members also pointed out that traffic passes by the location with great frequency and they would appeal if any motorist saw any people acting suspiciously at or near the bale structure to notify the gardaí.