The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has ensured that the Christmas of seven young children will not be overshadowed by the threat of eviction by allowing a Traveller family to set up home on his Westbourne Palace grounds in Ennis, Co Clare.
The Molloy family, whose youngest child is just four months old, had no place to go after being evicted twice this year from sites in Ennis, following court orders obtained by Ennis UDC.
The Molloys - whose seven children range in age from 10 years to four months - are one of several Traveller families in Ennis parking illegally around the town and its environs without proper facilities since the closure of the town's only official halting site in February 1997. This was on foot of a High Court order.
Bishop Walsh explained: "One family didn't have anywhere to go. They have been moved on a couple of times and I allowed them to park on the lawn."
Anxious to play down his action, Bishop Walsh said: "There was a family in need and I responded to that need."
Mr Thomas Molloy said: "We are very grateful to the Bishop for allowing us to stay here. We didn't know where to go. Everywhere we went we received summonses from the council."
He added: "If the Bishop did not allow us to stay here, our Christmas would have been complete havoc.
"It is important for the kids that now there is no threat of us being moved on. We will be having a much better Christmas now because of the Bishop."
Mrs Rosie Molloy agreed, saying that they had been run around like dogs and now they could not be moved on.
The most recent statistics from the Department of the Environment reveal that there are 1,128 Traveller families living on the roadside throughout the State.
In Co Clare alone, figures from Clarecare show that there are 210 travellers living on unauthorised sites without water, refuse collection, electricity or toilets. Of these 44 are children between the ages of 11 and 18, while there are 75 children up to the age of 10 without adequate living conditions.
Bishop Walsh's move was described as "a very charitable thing to do" by an Ennis urban councillor, Mr Raymond Greene.
He said: "It further highlights our neglect of our responsibility in providing accommodation for the county's Travelling community.
"There shouldn't be need for the Bishop to act as he has done. I know there are difficulties but it shames the local authorities that nothing has been done.
"It is a sad note as we come into the holiday period and is totally alien to the Christmas and Christian spirit that we have not catered for the Traveller community.
"It is quite simple, if they are homeless we should provide for them. There has been too much talking; the talking must stop."
The courts in recent months have displayed growing impatience with the local authority's failure to establish official halting sites, throwing out two recent court applications by Clare Co Council and Ennis UDC to have illegally parked Traveller families evicted.
Dr Walsh, who chaired the Traveller Accommodation Advisory Committee which presented its report to Clare Co Council 15 months ago, has expressed his concern at the delay in identifying sites for Travellers.
The Council - bound by statutory requirements in the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998 - is to establish a committee in the new year which will prepare a Traveller accommodation programme to be adopted by the end of March 2000.
