Dominic Hannigan's blog

After two years of effort, I finally managed to get the roadway into my own estate completed. The developer had left the estate without finishing off the last 30m of road surfacing. This might sound like a small deal but it has taken me about 50 emails, 5 meetings and a trip to see the developer in his office in Newry (when he told me he would never, never, never finish the road) to get this done.


Lagavooren Manor gets its long awaited wearing course

The turning point was the appointment of a new area engineer, Barry Hanley, who basically told the developer that if wanted to do any more business in Meath, he’d have to finish the estate. Hats off to Barry!

Another estate I’ve been working closely with over the last two years is La Mare in Stamullen. The developer sold off a house to a third party, and also included in the sale the estate’s open space (the open space had never been “handed over” to the council). Of course, the developer neglected to tell the new owner this. Next thing the residents see a notice for a Chinese take-away appearing on the open space.

I worked with them to get the application turned down and now the owner has agreed to transfer the open space to the council and his solicitors and the council solicitors are working together. It finally appears that we might get a result on this in the next couple of months.

The Drogheda Leader newspaper published a letter this week which attacks me for my sexuality. It was unsigned, and quite nasty. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the amount of people who have contacted me or come up to me in the street to voice their support.

On Friday evening I attended the opening of the Drogheda Samba festival at the D Hotel. The Samba festival has run now for years and is a firm fixture in the town. Brian & Phil Conyngham and a few others put it together on a shoestring budget and every year manage to put on a great show.

I headed from there up to Bellewstown Hill, where I joined my fellow councillors for dinner with the race committee. The race festival is going from strength to strength. I manage to lose on every race I bet on.



Bellewstown Races, July 2007

I had to leave before the end as I had another appointment. The Drogs were playing at United Park. I arrived slightly late to find that we were 2-0 up.



The view from the top of the League

It was a lovely evening for the match. Unfortunately, the team made hard work of it and St Pats managed to fight their way back into the game, scoring from a very marginal penalty decision. The Drogs just about manage to hold on for a 2-1 win, although in fairness St Pat’s would have been deserving of a point. The win puts up back at the top of the league, a nice position to be in as the team travels to Helsinki for the first round of the UEFA match on Thursday.

I drove home to dump the car and started out to walk back into town for a few drinks.
When I arrived in McPhails pub the Samba band was just playing its last few tracks. I spoke to Phil Conyngham, who despite having to manage the whole affair in venues right across the town, still looked as fresh as a daisy.