Holy war in Killarney over moving statue

A STATUE controversially relocated from a hospital rooftop in Killarney to a ground level location will become a target for vandals, town councillor Donal Grady has warned.

The HSE decision to take the iconic Sacred Heart statue from its lofty position on Killarney Community Hospital last month is still causing anger in the tourist town, with three motions on the issue considered at Monday night’s council meeting.

Killarney mayor Michael Gleeson said in his many years in public life he had seen no issue generate as much concern and upset.

People were outraged that their values should be debased and cast aside by a unilateral decision to remove the statue from a position in which it had stood for more than 70 years. “It is time the state and its agencies showed respect for the traditions which have moulded us,” he said. People of other religions had not expressed concerns about having the statue in the hospital, he said.

Independent councillor Hugh Courtney and other councillors did not accept a HSE statement that the statue had to be removed for health and safety reasons.

Mr Courtney, proposing the statue be returned to its original location, said it had not been unsafe and, if needs be, the council should send its own engineer to assess the situation.

He also said the HSE should deal with pluralism by incorporating religious items from other faiths rather than eliminating all items from the Christian faith from their institutions. The council would have to continue its campaign to have the statue put back up on the hospital building, he urged.

“Religious icons are a source of solace to sick and elderly people. Rather than removing them, they should be there for such people in their final years,” Mr Courtney said.