THE owner of the iconic green Showman’s Wagon and Piper’s Funfair in Kinsale said he is ‘absolutely gutted’ at how he is being treated by Cork County Council.
Brendan Piper was speaking following his decision to remove the wagon at Short Quay last week, which has been in Kinsale since 1932.
He was told he has to sign a three-year lease with the Council to hold his popular summer funfair residency in the town park, but believes if he signs the lease, he will have to find a new location after three years.
‘What’s happening here is wrong,’ Brendan told The Southern Star.
‘I can’t understand why the Council is pushing us out of Kinsale as we bring business and childhood memories for everyone. I don’t know what to do, but we will try to get this decision reversed,’ he added. An online petition, set up by local Green Party representative Marc O’Riain, seeking a reversal of the removal of the Showman’s Wagon, has already got over 1,000 signatures.
Following the removal of the wagon, new bollards were erected on the Market Square end of the quay.
Standing orders were suspended at a heated meeting of Bandon Kinsale Municipal District last week with one councillor claiming that Pipers were being ‘hounded out of Kinsale’ by Council officials.
Cllr Sean O’Donovan (FF) said the Showman’s Wagon has been part of the fabric and history in Kinsale and will be a great loss to the area.
Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) said Piper’s rent would rise by 50% next year and 100% by the third year, and they would have to sign an agreement that they would be gone after that.
‘They are being hounded out of Short Quay this year and from the town park in three years, and our views are being totally ignored,’ he stormed.
Senior executive officer Mac Dara O h-Icí said: ‘We have been reasonable and put forward some solutions and it’s not exactly what they wanted. But it’s not appropriate to be discussing short-term leases in a public forum.’
