A memorial in Lanesboro, Co Longford, built without planning permission to commemorate one of the Maze Prison hunger strikers who died in 1981, can stay in place, An Bord Pleanála has ruled.
The memorial, consisting of a semi-circular stone boundary wall with five flagpoles and an upstanding black marble slab inscribed with the name of Martin Hurson, had been erected by the local Sinn Féin organisation.
Subsequently, Sinn Féin councillor Brendan Farrell sought planning permission from Longford County Council to retain the memorial, on the basis that Mr Hurson had been put forward as a candidate in Longford in the 1981 general election.
After the council, which owns the site, decided to approve the memorial, Fine Gael councillor Alan Mitchell appealed to An Bord Pleanála, objecting to the trespass on council land at Aughamore.
He cited the fact that it is located close to a Church of Ireland graveyard, saying this was "insensitive", and also maintained that there was no reason why a "failed election candidate" should have such a memorial.
But the board ruled that it "would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity" as well as being "acceptable in terms of traffic safety" and was therefore in accordance with proper planning and sustainable development.
One of the three conditions was that the flagpoles "shall be removed within two months . . . in the interest of visual amenity" while another specified that drainage arrangements, including the disposal of surface water, must be agreed with the council.
Cllr Mitchell was disappointed by the board's decision. "It sends out the wrong message," he said. "This memorial was foisted on the people of Lanesboro by Sinn Féin without going through the planning process, and sets a very bad example."
He said a memorial to all the people who died during the Troubles would have been more appropriate, or one commemorating Det Garda Jerry McCabe, who was killed by the IRA in 1996.
Attempts to contact Cllr Farrell were unsuccessful.
