Minute's silence observed at Ballyduff meeting

Ultan Sherry


September’s meeting of the Ballyjamesduff municipal district for Cavan County Council began with the offering of condolences to the relatives and friends of the Hawe family, who died in such tragic circumstances on Monday of last week.
Gardaí are treating the deaths of Alan and Clodagh Hawe and their three sons Liam (15), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) as a case of murder-suicide. Their bodies were discovered at their Ballyjamesduff home on Monday of last week and all five were laid to rest in Castlerahan last Sunday.
Cathaoirleach Cllr Phillip Brady (FF) said that those present and absent councillors were united as one in their mourning for the Hawe family.
Each councillor present took it in turn to pay their own tribute to the deceased. Cllr Winston Bennett said that it was a tragic event and that everyone was “mortified” by what had happened.
Sinn Féin Cllr Noel Connell, meanwhile, described the family as the “salt of the earth” and that they were really good people who seemed to live the perfect way of life.
As a mark of respect, a minute’s silence was held in memory of the Hawes, and the meeting was adjourned for five minutes.

Junction 
Upon the resumption, a number of members items were considered for discussion. Among these included turning movements at the Shantully junction in Crossdoney, raised by Cllr Brady.
He described the junction as a “death trap”, saying that there had been a serious accident there recently, with two people being taken to hospital.
The motion calling for road safety improvement measures was supported firstly by Cllr Bennett, who stated that people were having to take a chance when turning right at the junction and that the wall lying out into the road was a road safety issue. Cllr Noel Connell seconded it, commenting it was a dangerous junction.
Responding to the concerns, area engineer Kevin Sexton commented that the wall was a separate issue to the junction, as it was in private ownership, but that he had been in contact with the man who owns the wall, and who proposed to do something about it.
Mr Sexton also remarked however that attempts had been made in the past to rectify this issue but that they had come to no fruition. He stated that there was no ideal solution to the problem.


Hedge cutting
Another motion, which was proposed by Cllr Bennett, was hedge cutting along public roads in the region. He said that there were sections along the road between Virginia and Ballyjamesduff where the hedges were cut and others that weren’t, with branches hanging out over the road.
Referring to the fact that some of the hedges were privately owned by farmers in the area, Cllr Bennett said that farmers were responsible for cutting those hedges as they owned them, but some perhaps don’t realise it.
The suggestion was made therefore that in future hedgecutting should be tied in with the single farm payment as an incentive for farmers to cut their road hedges.
In response to the motion, Mr Sexton replied that he and his team were doing everything they could to tackle the problem, and that lots of people on the ground were working hard to resolve this issue.
He also said that hedges on some sections of the Virginia to Ballyjamesduff road had not been cut for 30 years or more.