Thurles tackles anti-social tenants

THE residents of Monakeeba and Cabragh Court housing estates in Thurles, County Tipperary, don’t like talking about their neighbours.

Trouble has been brewing in the estates for months, and the town council has been forced to appoint an investigations officer to gather evidence on those making their neighbour’s lives a living hell.

If the problems persist the officer - set to be appointed in the coming weeks - can go to the courts and ask the judge to have the troublemakers evicted.

All-night parties, drug dealing, and intimidation are rife according to the estate’s residents, who won’t release their names for fear of retribution.

“These guys aren’t normal. They do things their own way, and will take the law into their own hands,. You can’t put your name in the paper and publicly speak against them,” one man said.

Residents believe those orchestrating the anti-social activities in Thurles have committed some vicious assaults, and no one is willing to face them down on their home turf.

Less than half a dozen families are creating the problems, but no one has been able to tackle them up to now.

One woman, who was extremely reluctant to talk, said her children were threatened when she complained about the disturbances in the past.

“They told them that they were going to beat them up if I didn’t shut up. It was very frightening at the time,” she said.

The woman refused to reveal her name, or the ages of her children, fearing she would be identified by the gangs.

The council has never been able to evict the troublesome tenants in these estates because no one is willing to stand up in court and dish the dirt on their neighbours.

There is nothing obvious in Cabragh Court to suggest it’s one of the town’s rough spots. All the houses look well kept, many have satellite dishes, and fairly new cars are parked outside many front doors.

Their lawns are neatly trimmed, there’s no graffiti on the estate’s walls, and the deadly uniform greyness that hangs over estates such as Moyross in Limerick is absent here.

Gangs don’t hang out at corners, at least not in the day time, and the “no-go area” tag seems hard to justify in this relatively new 40 house council development.

One baseball capped teenager insists there is no major problem in the area.

“It’s not too bad really, there’s a couple of families who do their own thing and that, but that’s all,” he said. The youth won’t give his name because “the lads” might see it in the paper.

Local councillors have been inundated with calls from residents trying to get out of Cabragh in recent months.

“There’s a large number of people trying to get houses elsewhere, they just want to move out,” said Thurles Fianna Fáil town councillor Jim Ryan.

“It’s come to the stage now where you would have people on the waiting list for a house and they wouldn’t take it in Cabragh Court,” he said.

Ryan hopes the appointment of the investigations officer will at last restore order in the estate. “I think that it should be viewed more as a positive than a negative story. OK it’s sad that this is happening in Thurles, but at least we have a solution at last,” he said.

Problems in the 122-house Monakeeba estate have eased recently, but the officer will still keep an eye on the place- in between organising courses to teach people how to be good tenants.

Deirdre O’Shea, the council worker co-ordinating the new position, believes the officer will try and avoid going to court in the beginning. “Taking people to court for breaches of the tenancy agreement is an option, but he or she will try and crack the trouble on the ground first,” Ms O’Shea said.

“The job will be about assisting in conflict resolution. The officer will work with the tenants and will be a skilled communicator.”

Already tenant liaison officers have worked successfully in Kildare and Kilkenny, and they are a regular feature of local authorities in the bigger cities.

The position that offers a two year contract will pay between 3€30,000 and €35,000 annually. The Department of Environment and Local Government has granted Thurles Town Council €34,000 towards the post.

Gardaí are backing the appointment and don’t believe it will interfere with their work. The Council insist that Cabragh Court and Monakeeba are not the sole targets of the initiative.

“We have 295 local authority houses in Thurles, and the officer will have responsibility for all of them,” O’Shea said.

The Mayor of Thurles Paddy Barry doesn’t belive his town has a serious problem with drugs and intimidation, despite the problems in the estates.

“There’s no town where you don’t get the odd bit of trouble. There’s drugs all over the country but at least we’re doing something about it,” he said.

Descriptions of the investigations officer as a gun slinging enforcer annoyed Mayor Barry, who believes such talk gave the north Tipperary town a bad name. “If there is a problem this officer will have the absolute evidence to do something about it. This will be good for everyone.”