The Week: From the height of a County Carlow berm bank to the lows of losing a Kilkenny City attraction

You’re reading The Week on KCLR, highlighting some of the stories you may have missed on-air and online.

Glanbia’s proposed cheese processing plant for Belview in South Kilkenny again dominated the news and it seemed everybody had something to say from the Taoiseach himself to farmers working the land.

The announcement by Diageo that it’s permanently closing Kilkenny City’s Smithwick’s Experience also continues to get a reaction and there’ve been meetings and even a song about it all.

Planning issues were to the fore too as some Tullow residents reacted to a berm bank which has risen around a neighbouring site, while others have shown concern about a five-year gaping hole on a Carlow Town street.

On Kilkenny’s border with Waterford we await an update on the North Quays project after some doubt was expressed about it moving forward with the current investment fund linked to it, but its CEO’s told KCLR they’ll be lodging the required paperwork and we should have more on this next week.

And Goresbridge woman Miriam Donohoe talked to us from Uganda where she’s working with GOAL.

As always, you can join our news team across the day, seven days a week, read the stories on kclr96fm.com and scoreline.ie or take us with you on the KCLR app.

Glanbia Belview

Many people had their say this week on An Taisce‘s continued bid to halt the development of Glanbia‘s proposed cheese processing plant at Belview in South Kilkenny.

There were views from political leaders, including An Taoiseach (see here) and European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne (see here) while Carlow Kilkenny Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan had his say on Tuesday’s KCLR Live with Eimear Ní Bhraonáin …

That evening on The Way It Is our Sue Nunn was joined by Kilkenny native John Gibbons, an environmental campaigner and journalist …

On Wednesday morning An Taisce’s Dr Elaine McGoff joined Eimear Ní Bhraonáin on KCLR Live …

Kilkenny IFA Chair, Jim Mulhall, is also a local dairy farmer and he outlined his views to our Sue Nunn on Wednesday’s The Way It Is …

There was further local farmer reaction on Thursday’s KCLR Live with Eimear Ní Bhraonáin …

While that evening two more, differing opinions were offered on The Way It Is with Sue Nunn …

Then on Friday’s KCLR Live, another group that had opposed Glanbia’s plans, Friends of the Irish Environment, outlined why …

Carlow Planning

We heard this week how a Carlow developer’s been served enforcement orders on a site in Tullow where there are issues regarding a fence and what’s called a berm bank.

Read about that here and get an idea of the heights involved here:

Eimear Ní Bhraonáin on KCLR Live spoke with some Carlow councillors and a resident who lives next door to the development …

The topic stirred up other site concerns, including one in Carlow Town as Cllr Fergal Browne outlined on KCLR Live ….

From Goresbridge to Uganda with GOAL

For The Saturday Show last weekend Edward Hayden was joined by Goresbridge gal Miriam Donohoe live from Uganda to discuss the fantastic work being done by GOAL there …

Smithwick’s Experience

Diageo‘s decision at the end of April to permanently close the Smithwick’s Experience in Kilkenny City continues to draw opposition locally.

On Monday the drinks company reissued its statement to KCLR News:

“The Smithwick’s Experience Kilkenny has been closed since March 2020, the outset of the COVID pandemic, and has been unable to open due to restrictions, social distancing requirements and the lack of international visitors, which has been the mainstay of the centre.

Over the past 12 months we have evaluated all available options, but unfortunately we have come to the decision that it is impossible for us to adapt the experience for it to be a viable business and experience going forward.  As a result we are saddened to announce that the Smithwick’s Experience Kilkenny will be closing permanently.

Smithwick’s is proud of its Kilkenny roots and its strong connection to the people and the city. We are going to take this time to look at a range of options for the long-term sustainable future for the building; to support Kilkenny’s vibrant creative culture and growth economically and socially. We remain committed to supporting the pubs and bars of Kilkenny and the wider South East region as they re-open.”

On Tuesday hoteliers outlined their stance – details here

Anthony Morrison, Chairman of Kilkenny City and County Vintner Federation of Ireland (VFI) spoke passionately on KCLR Live about hopes to reverse the decision …

On Wednesday we heard on KCLR News how overall Diageo was expecting to yield a 14% rise in profits – details on that here.

And on KCLR Live the same day a former employee of the brewery spoke on KCLR Live:

On Thursday Kilkenny publicans were set to virtually meet with Diageo to discuss the closure and the mood was good going into that – read about that here

They didn’t get the answer they’d hoped for, but not everything’s lost – see why here

For local musician Jack McHugh there are personal ties to the brewery and the visitor centre, as he’s been telling KCLR News …

Hear his track here:

North Quays

One of the region’s biggest developments is set to take place along the North Quays in Ferrybank.

But it seems there’s some doubt in the Waterford council camp that the project will continue with the investment fund involved with Falcon Real Estates yet to prove it has the funds available to proceed to the next stage.

It was given a deadline date of today (Saturday, 14 May) to submit evidence and on Thursday’s The Way It Is CEO Rob Cass was confident of meeting the deadline …

Catch Up

There’s plenty more from across the week here on KCLR.

You’ll find our news stories here while regular key features from programmes covering a range of topics, including travel, fitness, health care, as well as repeats of our talk shows and more can be found in our Catch Up section.

Best of all, you can read and listen to everything in the KCLR app.