Donation for monument ‘insulting’

SHANNON Foynes Port Company, which runs Limerick docks and shipping on the Shannon Estuary, has been accused of insulting the memory of generations of the city’s dockers with a €1,000 cheque towards a commemorative monument.

Mayor John Gilligan has returned the cheque, which he said was a “downright insulting” donation to the structure, which will cost €95,000 to build. He said the port company should have given at least half the projected cost, given the service of dockers to the city and shipping.

Mr Gilligan said: “I would have expected a donation of up to €45,000 from the port company as they have an obligation to the people who put the docks where they are now. These people [Shannon Foynes Port Company] have no financial problems, and have attempted to sell large areas of the dock. They still own parts of this, and have been asked to develop them for a number of years. Maybe if they did that, they could send the city council some more money.”

He accused the port company of having “squandered” money in a long protracted legal battle with a former employee.

Mr Gilligan said dockers down the generations had “worked in all weathers and worked like slaves on behalf of the port authority”.

Limerick City Council, he said, was prepared to donate a realistic sum to the monument, despite its financial constraints. Mr Gilligan said that when the project was first mooted, the city council felt the port company might even fund the entire cost.