Happy Christmas

Winter Solstice

It was a beautiful afternoon for the Winter Solstice at Knockroe yesterday. As many as 300 people witnessed the wonderful sunset and the passage of the sun.

Sadly, the morning solstice was a little bit damp, to say the least! However, the day before and after were spectacular.

Here are some links to short time lapse films of both the morning and afternoon solstices. It was filmed over a four days so hopefully you can get a real feeling of the event.

Solstice Part 1 – The Rising Sun (1 minute 55 seconds

Solstice Part 2 – The Setting Sun (2 minutes 45 seconds)

Solstice (4 minutes 40 seconds)

Thank you to all who organised the parking, mince pies, sausage rolls and hot punch, and who organised the raffle and donated prizes.

Thanks especially to the various members of the Caiseal Conservation Committee, the Suir Valley Environmental Group, officials from the OPW and of course Professor Muiris Ó Súilleabháin for giving us such and enlightening talk about the inter-related archaeology in the area.

And thank you all for coming and making it a great community occasion!

DunoAir Update

DunoAir’s appeal to An Bord Pleanála is being considered at the moment. There are counter appeals in against DunoAir’s proposed wind turbines, and observations from various community groups, individuals and businesses. Other observations have been submitted by Tipperary County Council, the Department for Heritage, the Heritage Council and An Taisce.

The case against DunoAir is very strong. If, as we hope, An Bord Pleanála turn down their appeal and uphold Tipperary County Council’s reasons for refusal, then we believe that the area will gain strong protection into the foreseeable future.

An Bord Pleanála’s decision is by January 13^th, 2017. It is common, however, for ABP to request further information regarding wind turbine appeals which can make the case drag on for much longer. Fingers crossed ABP make their decision quickly without the need for further information just as Tipperary Co Co did, and that it is firmly refused!

For now, we can’t do much more than sit tight, cross our fingers and wait.

Thank You

Thank you all for your continued support throughout the year. It’s been a long one, but we hope we can see light at the end of the tunnel now.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Winter Solstice Celebrations

The Winter Solstice will be celebrated on Wednesday the 21st December with a large crowd expected to visit the Knockroe Passage Tomb. 

Knockroe is the only Passage Tomb with both a Morning and Evening Solstice – the morning Solstice occurs around 8.45 am while the evening event occurs around 3.45 pm.
The Suir Valley Environmental Group are working with the Caiseal Conservation Committee to make the Evening Solstice an even more enjoyable occasion for visitors.

There’ll be refreshments to keep you warm from 2pm and the Suir Valley Environmental Group has a raffle for a Christmas Hamper to raise funds to stop the industrial wind turbines being built overlooking Knockroe and the villages of Faugheen, Ballyneale and Ahenny.

Please allow time for parking and walking to the site and don’t forget your wellies!

The Winter Solstice at Knockroe

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year and has been marked by civilisations across the world for millennia. This year the sun will set over the foot hills of Slievenamon at about 3.45pm, shining its light into Knockroe.

Knockroe is a unique megalithic tomb because it boast two chambers in one cairn. One is aligned with the Winter Solstice rising sun, while the other is aligned with the setting sun.
Built over 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic period by the first farmers, Knockroe is thought to be 1,000 years older than Stone Henge or the Egyptian pyramids.

The site was first excavated in 1990. As well as the two chambers with a dual solar alignment, archaeologists uncovered the greatest collection of megalithic art outside of County Meath.

Archaeologists believe that Knockroe Passage Tomb is part of a large collection of interconnected megalithic sites in the area, including Bawnfree, the Kilmacoliver Stone Circle, and the cairn on Slievenamon.

‘This unusually well preserved collection of monuments represents the surviving footprints of the human story in the region over 250 generations or more from the Stone Age to the present’, said Professor Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, UCD School of Archaeology.

‘It is an extended human story that has been played out across the foothills extending eastward from Slievenamon and the slopes flanking the upper Lingaun valley, dominated by Carrigadoon’.

That human story continues as locals and visitors alike now gather each year to celebrate the Winter Solstice as the sun sets over the foothills of Slievenamon.

 

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Music Fundraiser and Update

This coming Friday, October 14, we have a Night of Music in Lissadobber Pub from 9pm. It’ll be a great night of trad and folk music with Ned Vaughan and friends, and all musicians are welcome.

There’ll be a raffle and spot prizes, so come join in the fun!

This fundraiser is to raise much needed funds to help us save the foothills of Sliabh na mBan from DunoAir’s industrial wind turbines. DunoAir has appealed to An Bord Pleanála so we need to raise money to help pay our costs to a professional planning consultant.

So far we have raised almost €1,500 of the €3,500 necessary to get us through this stage of the process, so we need to raise a further €2,000.

 

 Online fundraiser

Please also send the online fundraiser link to all of your friends and relatives and add a personal message about the wind turbines and the foothills of Sliabh na mBan, the school, our landscape, heritage and local economy. If you’re on Facebook, please share the link with a message. The online fundraiser is there to reach out to those who live at a distance. You can donate online by clicking here or by contacting any member of the Suir Valley Environmental Group.

Cake Sale

There’s a halloween cake sale in Faugheen Clubhouse after Mass on Sunday, October 30th, with plenty of tasty bakes to tempt you! Watch this space for further details…

DunoAir Appeal

As you already know, DunoAir has appealed to An Bord Pleanála against Tipperary County Council’s refusal for their wind turbines.

Tipperary County Council’s refusal came much quicker than expected as we were led to believe that the council would demand further information from DunoAir before they could make their decision, and this would have taken a further 6 months or more. However, Tipperary County Council were quick to decide. As a result, the appeals process has come much earlier than expected.

We have employed a consultant, Peter Crossan, to represent the Suir Valley Environmental Group and to prepare an observation in response to Dunoair’s appeal. Peter has in-depth knowledge of this area, case, county and national policy and has already completed the bulk of the work in preparing our objection at the previous stage. This is a critical stage of the process so it is vital that we submitted a professional observation.

We understand there were about 12 – 15 other observations submitted by, among others, the Faugheen Environmental Group (formerly Faugheen Against Pylons), Ballyneale Environmental Group, Ahenny Action Group, Newtown Upper National School, and the Caiseal Conservation Committee.

An Bord Pleanála now has the full planning file from Tipperary County Council including each of your 200 objections. ABP will read this file as a new case, which means that they are obliged to read all of your objections. ABP will also consider the various observations on the appeal.

It will most likely be at least 8 weeks before we hear anything further from An Bord Pleanála, possibly more. Their decision is due mid January 2017, however it could take longer. So for now it’s a waiting game.

Stay Positive!

The local community has given much already, and we are very appreciative of all the help, support and donations. We hope that this fundraising drive will be our final push to ensure that our hills remain turbine free.

We are positive about saving our hills from wind turbines, and much of our success to date is down to the community standing together.

Thank you!

 

 

 

Update

Here’s an update on what’s happened so far, our strategy, and the necessity to fundraise.

Refused and Rezoned..

• Thanks to your 200 objections and the work of all the groups involved, Tipperary County Council refused perminssion for DunoAir’s wind turbines on our hills. The grounds for refusal were very strong, (you will all have received notification of the refusal from the council).
• And now, thanks to your submissions, over 800 in total, Tipperary County Council rezoned Carrigadoon and Curraghdobbin Hills as ‘Unsuitable for Wind Energy Development’ at the last council meeting on September 12.
• Both these successes are the result of our community standing together, and we thank and congratulate everyone.
• However, DunoAir has now appealed to An Bord Pleanála which means we have entered a critcal stage in the process.

DunoAir’s Appeal to An Bord Pleanála

• The planning refusal came much quicker than expected as we were led to believe that the council would demand further information from DunoAir before they could make            their decision, and this would have taken a further 6 months or more. However, Tipperary County Council were quick to decide. As a result, the appeals process has come much earlier than expected.
• We in the Suir Valley Environmental Group, on behalf of this community, have employed a consultant, Peter Crossan, to prepare an observation in response to Dunoair’s appeal. Peter has in-depth knowledge of this area, case, county and national policy and has already completed the bulk of the work in preparing our objection at the previous stage.
• ABP now has the full planning file from Tipperary County Council containing each of your 200 objections. ABP will read this file as a new case, which means that they are            obliged to read all of your objections.

Responding to the Appeal

• Each observation costs €50 to submit.
• Unless you have new, substantiated, evidence-based concerns to include, there is little point in lodging an observation which repeats information you have previously                  submitted at County level. ABP already have your objections.
• This process is different from our experience at county level: it is not a numbers game.
• Each observation should be a response to Dunoair’s appeal, which in itself is not an easy document to read and understand.
• Observations must show how DunoAir’s proposal contravenes county and national policies and guidelines. (A list of policies is avaible at the above link).
• If you have concerns that you wish raised but don’t feel you’re able to make an observation, you can email them to us here and we can then read through and forward to Peter      Crossan to be included in the observation he is preparing on behalf of the community.
• If you want to send your own observation because you do have concerns that you believe it is important to reiterate or new information that you want ABP to consider, we have lots of information on how to write observations on the website at how to object.
• You will also find Dunoair’s appeal on the same page.

Fundraising

As you can see we are at a critical stage in a complicated process and we need professional help to complete the job. As we have reached the appeals stage of the process sooner than expected, we now need to raise the final €3,500 to fight DunoAir at An Bord Pleanála very quickly. The €3,500 is necessary to pay for the cost of the consultant.

If you have nothing else to add to your objections but still feel that you would like to contribute to the process, please consider donating the €50, or part of the €50 that you would have spent on an observation. All donations of all sizes are very much appreciated.

You can donate online through SOS Sliabh na mBan or by contacting any member of the Suir Valley Environmental Group.

Please also send the online fundraiser link to all of your friends and relatives and add a personal message about the wind turbines and the foothills of Sliabh na mBan, the school, our landscape, heritage and local economy. If you’re on Facebook, please share the link with a message. The online fundraiser is there to reach out to those who live at a distance.

The local community has given much already, and we are very appreciative of all the help, support and donations. We hope that this fundraising drive will be our final push to ensure that our hills remain turbine free.

We are positive about saving our hills from wind turbines, and most of our success so far is down to the community standing together. Thank you!

 

Contact details for the Suir Valley Environmental Group:

• Milo Power (Ballyneale) – 087 620 8160
• Richard Walsh (Tullahought) – 087 996 3355
• Sacha Maxwell (Kilcash) – 086 823 4430
• Breege Phelan (Faugheen) – 087 121 3839
• Pete Smith (Castletown) – 086 854 8381

 

Community History Walk & Talk

It was a lovely day for a walk up Carrigadoon yesterday with a fascinating guide to the local history by Robert Duggan. Thanks all for coming out and braving the sunshine…and showers!

Thank you to Robert Duggan for giving us a fascinating talk about local history, in particular the history of Carrigadoon Hill, the Lingaun Valley and the surrounding area from the stone age to almost the present day!

The walk was a great reminder of why we are determined to protect our landscape, heritage and community from the threat of monster wind turbines.

Don’t forget we are fundraising at the moment to help us continue to protect the area, you can donate online at SOS Sliabh na mBan or if you live locally you can donated direct by contacting us by email or on 086 854 8381.

 

PUBLIC MEETING DunoAir Appeal

IMPORTANT MEETING THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22

An information meeting on Thursday September 22 in Faugheen Clubhouse at 8pm.

Please come to find out what you can do to help, and we will have advice for all those who wish to send observations to An Bord Pleanála.

It would be great to see a good crowd there, so please spread the word.

THIS IS A CRITICAL TIME FOR US.

DunoAir’s boss believes he has the right to stick his wind turbines wherever he likes and that we should have no say in the matter. He’s wrong. He believes that only local people object to his turbines. He’s wrong. He thinks its a joke that he hasn’t got permission ‘yet’. Wrong again. We take the protection of our community, economy, landscape and heritage very seriously.

We are in a strong position, but we can’t take anything for granted.

TOGETHER WE CAN BEAT THIS!

 

DunoAir Appeal

Please click on the links below to see the DunoAir Appeal

Small Files suitable for viewing on screen:

DunoAir Appeal PDF

Dunoair Appeal – site entrances maps PDF

DunoAir Appeal Appendix – Wind Resource – Izzy Projects PDF

Large Files suitable for printing:

DunoAir Appeal PDF – Large File

DunoAir Appeal Appendix – Wind Resource – Izzy Projects PDF – Large File

 

 

So DunoAir has appealed to An Bord Pleanála…

We expected that they would, but it means we still have some work to do to beat DunoAir…more about that below.

 But first, some news on Rezoning Carrigadoon and Curraghdobbin Hills…

Tipperary County Council are voting on the new Wind Energy Strategy tomorrow, which, in a nutshell means that if passed, Carrigadoon Hill and Curraghdobbin Hill will be rezoned unsuitable for wind turbines.

If successful it will be down to all the work and support from everyone in this community…all of those submissions we all made to the council will hopefully pay off tomorrow.

If passed, An Bord Pleanála must take the new zoning into account when considering DunoAir’s appeal. So fingers crossed…

DunoAir Appeal

On a positive note, we are in a strong position because of the strength of the refusal by Tipperary County Council, and because the refusal was recommended by numerous bodies including the Department for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Heritage Council, An Taisce, Kilkenny County Council…but we can’t take anything for granted.

• We are working on the appeal with a planning consultant who will submit observations on behalf of the Suir Valley Environmental Group.
• It is also recommended that other groups submit observations. So Faugheen Environmental Group (formerly Faugheen Against Pylons), Ballyneale Environmental, the Caiseal Conservation Committee etc will be submitting observations.
• Individuals can also send observations, and we will soon be able to advise on how to do so.
• Anyone can send an observation, and each observation costs €50.
• We have four weeks in which to make observations from the date they submitted their appeal, (last Monday September 5^th).

We will have an information meeting on Thursday September 22 in Faugheen Clubhouse at 8pm. Please come to find out what you can do to help, and we will have advice for all those who wish to send observations to An Bord Pleanála. It would be great to see a good crowd there, so please spread the word.

We will also update the Faugheen website as soon as we can with advice on how to send observations to An Bord Pleanála.

In the meantime we have uploaded DunoAir’s appeal – click here to see it: https://faugheenagainstpylons.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/dunoair-appeal/

Fundraising

Our online fundraiser raised almost €2,700, and with other donations totalled just almost €4,100! Thank you to everyone who donated or helped to spread the word.

We still need to raise a further €3,500 to continue to fight DunoAir at An Bord Pleanála. So please spread the word, we need your help…please share our fundraising link by email, social media, snail mail…send it to friends and relatives in other parts of the country, or the world, who you think would have donated had they been here!

Click here: http://www.ifundraise.ie/faugheenagainstpylons

Dates for your diary…

Ministerial Visit to Knockroe, Thursday September 15, 6.30pm

The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys, intends to visit the Knockroe Passage Tomb Thursday September 15 at 6.30pm.The visit is expected to last about an hour during which Professor Muiris O’Suilleabhain may be in attendance to brief the Minister on the history of the site. All are welcome.

Information Meeting, Thursday Septmeber 22, Faugheen Clubhouse, 8pm

Information about the appeal to An Bord Pleanála, what it means, and what we can all do to fight it. Advice will be available for anyone who wishes to make an observation on DunoAir’s appeal.

Community History Walk, Sunday September 25, Carrigadoon, 2pm

Robert Duggan will lead a ‘history walk and talk’ up Carrigadoon through Newtown Woods. Meet at the forest entrance by Newtown School. Family friendly, all welcome!

Online Fundraiser

Click here: http://www.ifundraise.ie/faugheenagainstpylons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Online Fundraising Update

 

Share, Share, Share!

Don’t forget we are also fundraising online, so please share this link with all your friends and family – www.ifundraise.ie/2532_sos-sliabhnamban.html

We need to raise €5,000 to help us fight this development. Please share the link and encourage all who can to donate, however large or small!

So far we have raised almost €3,250, so we have €1,750 to go in the next 12 days so that we can pay a professional environmental planning consultant to help us fight this development.

With a planning application as large and as complicated as this, it is vital that we have professional help to ensure that we prevent industrial wind turbines being erected across the foothills of Sliabh na mBan.

Sliabh na mBan is lives in the imagination of Irish people across the globe, so please share, share, share…by email, snail mail, social media, word of mouth… ask anyone and everyone you think will care enough to donate…and ask them to share, share, share!

 

Objections Clinics – Advice and Information

 

Objections Clinic – DunoAir Wind Turbine Application

We are running advice clinics for people who wish to object to DunoAir’s plans to erect 8 huge turbines in the foothills of Slievenamon just outside Carrick-on-Suir.

Clinic 1 – Newtown Upper National School, 11am – 6pm, Saturday July 2.

Clinic 2 – Faugheen Clubhouse, 10.30am – 12 noon, Sunday July 3.

In the absence of any form of community consultation offered by DunoAir, there will be information about the development at the Objections Clinics, and about how to submit your observations on the development to Tipperary County Council.

The closing date for submission of objections is Monday, July 18.

All are welcome, and those who previously wrote objections are strongly encouraged to update their objections to this development as there are some changes to the development since the last attempt by DunoAir to gain planning permission. We still have the objection fees belonging to those who wrote objections in 2015 so there is no additional cost if you’ve already paid.

The turbines, on Carrigadoon Hill and Curraghdobbin Hill above the villages of Faugheen, Ahenny, Ballyneale, Tullahought and Grangemockler would be visible all along the Suir Valley, damage the local environment, heritage and archaeology, endanger the local school, community and the local economy.

To see DunoAir’s application to Tipperary County Council please click here.

For an objection form letter with the correct development reference number and description please Click here for PDFor Click here for Word.

Fundraising

Don’t forget we are also fundraising online, so please share the link with all your friends and family – www.ifundraise.ie/2532_sos-sliabhnamban.html

We need to raise €5,000 to help us fight this development. Please share the link and encourage all who can to donate, however large or small!

Sliabh na mBan is lives in the imagination of Irish people across the globe, so please share, share, share, by email, social media and word of mouth… ask anyone and everyone you think will care to donate!

 

 

 

 

SOS SLIABH NA mBAN

Photo copyright Lena Power

Photo copyright Lena Power

Photo copyright Lena Power

Photo copyright Lena Power

 

URGENT APPEAL

We Need to Raise €5,000 in 4 Weeks

Dunoair’s planning application for 8 industrial wind turbines across Curraghdobbin and Carrigadoon was accepted by Tipperary County Council on Tuesday June 14.

This is it folks: We have about 4 weeks to get our objections to the Council and to raise the rest of the money to pay our Environmental Consultant without whom we cannot fight this battle.

We’ve now set up an online fundraising campaign to raise money…we have had great support from our local communities so far, but now is the time to spread the net wider, to friends and family in other parts of Ireland and across the globe who haven’t had a chance to help us. We have so many people with Irish connections living around the world and this is their chance to be involved in the fight to protect beautiful Sliabhnamban, ancient Knockroe, unique Ahenny, The Linguan Valley, Carrigadoon, Curraghdobbin and the Suir Valley from destruction by needless industrialisation.

Please share the this link – SOS Sliabhnamban – and ask your friends and family to donate anything they can to help us.

Slievenamon is a cultural icon in the minds of the Irish diaspora so this is an opportunity for us to reach out to all Irish Clubs and Associations across the globe to ask for their help. So if you have links to any, particularly Tipperary Associations, please pass on the word!

Donating is easier than internet shopping!

You can copy and paste the instructions below into an email to make it easy for your contacts to help us:

ONLINE FUNDRAISING LINK:  

https://www.ifundraise.ie/2532_sos-sliabhnamban.html

1. Click on the online fundraising link above. This will bring you to the ‘SOS Sliabhnamban’  web page where you can read all about the area’s history and heritage, view beautiful pictures of Sliabhnamban and Knockroe (courtesy of Pete Smith and Lena Power).
2. On that page you will see a yellow tab that says ‘Donate Now’. Click on that link.
3. You will see a page that gives you options on how much to donate, ranging from €10 to €100. If you want to donate less than €10, tick ‘OTHER’.
4. Fill in your name and address
5. Using your Visa Debit (Laser) card or credit card, fill in your card details.
6. Tick ‘terms and conditions’ box.
7. Click ‘Complete Donation’. 

 

Photo copyright Lena Power

Photo copyright Lena Power

Photo copyright Lena Power

Photo copyright Lena Power

Sliabh na mBan and the Suir Valley

The Iconic Mountain of Sliabhnamban, (Slievenamon), its foothills and the Suir Valley are under threat from giant industrial wind turbines. We are currently working hard to raise funds to stop commercial energy companies from destroying our environment, landscape, heritage, wildlife and communities by erecting these turbines.

Whether you are pro or anti wind turbine doesn’t matter…all you need to ask yourself is whether Sliabhnamban is worth protecting from 126.5 metre high wind turbines.

Sliabhnamban, or Slievenamon in English, is a culturally iconic mountain which lives in the imagination of the people of Tipperary and Irish people throughout the world. It is a mountain steeped in history, myth and legend, about which songs are sung and stories told.

The mountain is called Sliabh-na-mBan, or ‘The Mountain of the Women‘, after the legend of Fionn Mac Cumhaill who was sought after by many young women, but he could only choose one wife. His wife would be whichever woman won a footrace to the top of the mountain. Fionn stood on the cairn atop the mountain and gave a signal to begin the race. The winner was Gráinne.

The song Sliabhnamban, written in the 19th century by revolutionary and poet Charles J Kickham, is a famous patriotic and romantic song about an exile who longs “to see our flag unrolled and my true love to enfold/ in the valley near Sliabhnamban”. It is the unofficial anthem of County Tipperary.

The Irish Tricolour flag was first flown publicly by Thomas Francis Meagher in his native Waterford on March 7th 1848. After taking part in the Young Irelanders 1848 Famine Rebellion Thomas Francis Meagher was arrested and accused of high treason. On the 16th of July, just before his trial, Meagher visited Sliabhnamban to give a speech to 50,000 people. Wearing a Tricolour Sash, Meagher fulfilled his earlier promise, baptising the country with the new flag saying, ‘…I ambition to decorate these hills with the flag of my country’.

In the same area we are lucky enough to have the unique 6000 year old megalithic passage tomb at Knockroe, Co.Kilkenny, in the foothills of Sliabhnamban. This passage tomb is similar to Newgrange in its decorative surfaces and is the most extensively decorated passage tomb complex in Ireland outside of the Boyne Valley which includes Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. Knockroe is visited by thousands of people every year, in particular on 21st December to see the morning and evening solar alignments during the Winter Solstice. Knockroe is unique because it is the only passage tomb in the world with both a sunrise and a sunset solar alignment. Experts suggest that the cursus and the unexcavated cairn atop Sliabhnamban and at Baunfree on nearby Kilmacoliver Hill may be connected to this passage tomb, making this whole area a gem in the Neolithic history of Ireland.

At the summits of Curraghdobbin and Carrigadoon, the foothills of Sliabhnamban, stand two of the largest hillforts in Ireland. Curraghdobbin’s hillfort is of the stone-bank fort type and one of only a handful in Ireland. These two hills stand at the centre of plans by a private company to erect 8 wind turbines which will result in the destruction of any remaining archaeological evidence.

Just a couple of miles from Knockroe are the world famous Western Ossory High Crosses, or the Ahenny High Crosses, which are situated on the edge of the pretty village of Ahenny. The Kilkieran High Crosses are also nearby and within sight of Carrigadoon Hill and Slievenamon.

The two street mining village of Ahenny was built by the Victoria Slate Mining Quarries Company in the 1860s for their workers. Now only one of the original streets, Vickers’ Street, remains in its entirety. Modelled on quarry workers’ cottages in Wales, these houses were the finest workers’ cottages in the area at the time, boasting slate roofs, clay floors and latticed windows. The village is considered to be of unique architectural importance.

As incredible as it may seem, all the heritage and history described above is under threat and will be destroyed if we do not take a stand today and stop the industrialisation of this area by private wind energy companies.

What can you do?

Please donate what you can to our cause. We need to employ experts and consultants to help us in our battle to save Sliabhnamban and they are not cheap! Our local residents have supported us thus far but it’s time to spread the net wider and ask anyone who has any connection to or who cares for Sliabhnamban to donate whatever you can to our cause.

 

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Photo copyright Pete Smith

 

Faugheen Environmental Group and the Suir Valley Environmental Group

Our group was founded in 2013 here in South Tipperary, in the valley of the Suir River and in the shadow of the famous and iconic mountain of Sliabhnamban. Originally called ‘Faugheen Against Pylons’, the organisation of our group was prompted by the realisation that our rural areas were under threat not only from Eirgrid’s plans for high power electrical cables and their associated massive pylons, but also from uncontrolled placement of industrial sized wind turbines (126m) on the foothills of Sliabhnamban and the surrounding area.

By early 2014 there were a number of local groups from Ballyneale, Kilcash, Kilsheelan, Killurney, Carrick-on-Suir, Ahenny, Grangemockler, Skough and Tullahought all campaigning for against pylons and turbines, and calling for a rethink on our national energy policy. These groups now work together as the Suir Valley Environmental Group.

The Suir Valley Environmental Group is a community group set up to inform and update people in the Sliabhnamban and Suir Valley area about environmental concerns and how to protect our heritage, flora and fauna.

The organisation of the Suir Valley Environmental Group was prompted by the realisation that our rural areas were again under threat not only from Eirgrid’s plans for high power electrical cables and their associated massive pylons, but also from uncontrolled placement of industrial sized wind turbines (126.5m) on the foothills of Sliabhnamban and the surrounding area.

As members of the Suir Valley Environmental Group we are now working with the Ahenny Action Group and the Caiseal Conservation Committee who successfully stopped the erection of a large wind energy project in the vicinity of Knockroe Megalithic Tomb more than 10 years ago.

We are currently working to protect the mountain of Sliabhnamban and the surrounding archaeologically rich areas of Knockroe and Ahenny from ruination by the erection of 8 x 126m wind turbines which would destroy the heritage, archaeology, scenic and cultural values of this ancient and historically significant area. If this industrial wind-energy factory is allowed to go ahead, it will open the door for the addition of countless more giant wind turbines in this sensitive area.

We Must Protect Our Heritage!

We Must Protect Our Heritage!

Your money will be used to pay a professional consultant who guides us in our legal battle against a private wind energy company.

Your donation is greatly appreciated. Your money will be used to protect and conserve Sliabhnamban and its foothills, the Suir Valley, Knockroe and Ahenny for future generations.

 

 

 

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Photo copyright Pete Smith

Photo copyright Pete Smith

A view of the land under threat from pylons…the beautiful Suir valley with the Comeragh Mountains in the background. Taken from Carrigadoon Hill which is now under threat from industrial wind turbines.Photo copyright Pete Smith

 

 

How Big?

 

How Big?