Timing of lockout added heat to a very sticky dispute

FAMED in song and story, the jaunting car has been an emblem of tourism in Killarney since the 19th century.

Featured on picture postcards and promotional brochures, it offers visitors a quaint and relaxing means of viewing the world-famous lakes.

But the serenity of Heaven’s Reflex, as Killarney is known, was shattered on Tuesday when a long-simmering row relating to horse dung nastily came to a head. The jarveys have since been protesting outside entrances to Killarney National Park.

When Queen Victoria came to Killarney, in 1861 – an event that launched the area as an international tourist destination – she took a boat trip on the lakes. She didn’t step up on a jaunting car but her son, the Prince of Wales, apparently did when he came to the beauty spot.

That’s just one of the many stories in the repertoire of Diarmuid Cronin, one of the jarveys from the Muckross area who have been effectively locked out of the national park because they will not comply with an order from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to use dung catchers.

Mr Cronin, 43, grew up in the national park where his father, Danny, worked and has been “jarveying” since he was 14.

“There were 11 of us in the family and we would be jarveying during the summer. The business helped put us through college. My father, who is now 94, is the last living person to have worked in the estate before it was taken over by the State and became a national park. He believes what is happening [the lockout] is a disgrace,” said the father of three.

“The service jarveys offer should be seen as an asset to Killarney. The trips are still popular with tourists. What better way to get the history of Killarney from a local person and all for €30 per hour!”

The timing of the lockout seems to have added fuel to the bitter dispute.

“We were locked out during one of the busiest weeks of the year – with Killarney Races and SummerFest going on. We rely on the period between now and the end of August to earn a big part of our income. We could lose out on that now unless there’s a settlement,” said Mr Cronin.

“It’s a seven-day job for eight or nine months of the year and it would be disastrous to miss out on the peak season.” Mr Cronin said the NPWS “inherited” the jarveys when the former Bourne Vincent Memorial Park, now part of Killarney National Park, was transferred to state ownership in 1932.

In the days of the landlords, he said jarveys were allowed drive visitors through the estates on payment of tolls. Rights established in those far-off days, perhaps 200 years ago, still exist, he maintained.

“At the time of the handover to the State, a law was passed that Kerry cattle be kept in the park and that no mechanically-propelled vehicles be allowed there,” Mr Cronin said.

The NPWS, meanwhile, is insisting the jarveys will not be allowed back into the national park until they attach dung catchers, provided by the wildlife service, to their carriages.

The jarveys are equally insistent that they will not use the catchers.

It’s a direct conflict, with the NPWS giving assurances the sanitary devices are safe to use and the jarveys arguing they are unsafe. Both sides are citing the advice of veterinary and equine experts to bolster arguments.

One thing is sure, however, and that is locals and visitors to Killarney have long since grown tired of horse dung on the streets of the town and on walkways in the national park. Time has moved on and while nobody wants to stop jarveys from earning a livelihood, people are no longer prepared to tolerate horse dung.

The public can’t understand why dung catchers which seem to operate without any problem on horse-drawn carriages in other parts of the world – including New York’s Central Park and Blackpool – won’t work in Heaven’s Reflex.

Mr Cronin, however, said it was not fair to make comparisons between Killarney and the situation in other places where horse-drawn carriages operate largely on terrain “as flat as a pool table”.

Because of the hilly nature of roads in Killarney National Park, the dung-catchers would rub off a horse’s sensitive hind legs and could lead an animal to bolt, or generally react unpredictably, he felt.

“Different horse-drawn wagons are also used in other countries. I don’t think the dung-catchers have been tried anywhere on two-wheeled carriages like we have in Killarney National Park,” he added.

The jarveys have suggested the use of a vacuum-type street cleaner, or ordinary brushing, as an alternative to the dung catchers. One such cleaner, attached to a tractor, was put on display at the protest during the week.

At one time, roads in the park were brushed but the NPWS is now adamant the dung catchers offer the best solution to an age-old problem.