Tipperary's largest town has been downgraded, says former Mayor

A former Mayor of Clonmel has claimed that the town has “vanished off the map” since the unification of South and North Tipperary County Councils.

“The town flourished when it had its own Corporation,” says Hubert Burke, who served as Mayor in 1975-76.

He accused former Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Phil Hogan of having “wrecked local democracy” for his role in the unification of the county councils in Tipperary.

This resulted in the abolition of the Borough Council in Clonmel in 2014, when it was replaced by the Borough District.

“It’s just appalling that a Kilkenny man (Phil Hogan) had done that. It’s as though Clonmel never existed,” he stated.

“Things went much better when the town had a Corporation that was elected from the town to run the town, but the county council had decided to obliterate the Corporation and has done its best to downgrade Clonmel ever since,” he said.

“When Clonmel was a separate unit the people in the town looked after Clonmel very cleverly.”

Mr Burke said his invitation to last week’s Civic Reception at the Town Hall to mark the departure of the Franciscan Order from Clonmel was very kind, but he described the manner of the invitation as “highly offensive”.

He took exception to the wording on the front of the invitation, and particularly the words “one county, one council, one community”.

He said that this “made no reference whatsoever” to the fact that Clonmel had always stood on its own two feet, and had been given a charter by two Catholic kings.

“That invitation purported to almost wipe the town off the map,” he said.

Mr Burke also objected to the depiction of the Butler crest on signs outside of the town, saying that Clonmel’s history went back long before the time of the Butlers.