Reflecting on the battle against Cork Harbour incinerator plan

They handed kids to the childminder, burnt the midnight oil brushing up on research and refused to be beaten by the planning system. Environmental lobby group CHASE could write the handbook for running a tight campaign. Later this week, they should know if their marathon efforts have all been in vain, writes Catherine Shanahan.

THE first time Linda Fitzpatrick heard of plans to build an incinerator in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, was at her child’s birthday party.

“My father-in-law, an engineer, was here to celebrate my daughter’s fourth birthday, back in 2001, and asked had we heard we were ‘getting a toxic waste incinerator’ down the road,” she says.