We have had town government since the Normans came here, 800 years ago. On the cusp of the centenary of 1916, the Fine Gael Minister for the Local Government of the day abolished the ‘bottom’ tier of local government, with the support of the joint-principal opposition party, Fianna Fáil.

THERE can be few more magnificent sights off the coast than the spectacle of the Skellig Rocks sitting serenely in the Atlantic on a clear, sunny day. But, of the two million tourists that come to the south-west each year, only a fraction ever go to the trouble of taking a ferry to these remote citadels.