Yesteryears: New bridge and £50 million retail centre for Carrick-on-Suir

Our Yesteryears feature this week is from the front page of The Nationalist dated March 1, 2008 in which our main story was headlined “New bridge and €50 million retail centre proposed for Carrick-on-Suir”.

According to Aileen Hahesy’s report three planning applications to build a €50 million shopping centre and separate discount supermarket in Carrick-on-Suir creating up to 150 jobs and a new public bridge over the river Suir had been lodged with Carrick-on-Suir Town Council.

The ambitious proposals for the Clonmel Road area of the town were lodged by Ruissuir Developments Limited, the main backers of which are the Parke Group, a major retail development company.

The report went on to add that if granted by the planning authorities, the shopping centre, discount supermarket and bridge linking the Clonmel Road to Coolnamuck on the county Waterford side of the river would pave the way for the development of a new urban quarter in the Coolnamuck area, including new schools, housing, community and retail facilities.

Yesteryears: Tipperary's 'Third World' schools snubbed and a break-in at a parish church

“I am not moving,” says PD Mayor Molloy, was the headline across the top of the page over a politics-related report from Eamon Lacey. While a recruitment drive by Fianna Fáil in Clonmel had yielded one new town councillor - (Cllr Cyril O’Flaherty) - an attempt to lure the sitting mayor from the Progressive Democrats had failed. Mayor Molloy ruled out a move to any other party for the “foreseeable future.

A letter of resignation that the Mayor wrote to PD party headquarters the previous week was withdrawn as he pledged his loyalty to the PD’s. According to the piece “it is understood Mayor Molloy was on the verge of joining Fianna Fáil after turning down Fine Gael”.

It was a second high profile setback for FG as the party also failed to recruit Cllr Darren Ryan who moved instead to the Labour Party from the WUAG.

Yesteryears: 40 years ago this month vandals caused extensive damage to Clonmel school

Eamonn Wynne wrote that week that a Cashel company’s investment in a new press to produce security fencing would lead to the creation of 25 jobs later that year. JN Fencing had announced that they were to invest €2.5 million in a new facility at its Ballypadeen plant.

Also that week we reported that a redundancy package had been offered by the Quinn Group to the workforce of the Merriot Radiator plant in Clonmel. Over 100 workers, members of the Unite union, were considering the offer which was five and a half weeks’ pay per year of service.