The University of Ulster has announced the plan to study the impacts of second and holiday homes. In Portballintrae, permanent residents believe they know what the impacts are, priced out of the housing market and pollution from over-development. Meanwhile the UUP’s Sammy Gardiner has called on planners to seek inspiration from Bessbrook as a model for rural development.
If you want to get a flavour of the proceedings at the Political Studies Association conference on its opening day, then the Storify collation below will bring you some of the images, tweets and sounds of the day. Particular highlights included: the Opening Plenary with David Blunkett, Peter Riddell and Matthew Flinders; and the late [...] read our review »
It’s the quiet ones you have to watch, they say. When I last saw Eamonn Namcarrow, back in the mid 1980s he was a congenial, good-natured and highly sociable young lad. The next time was 26 years later, in Lavery’s Gin Palace in Bradbury Place. He’d just brought out his first book, Holywood Star about [...] read our review »
Holiday homes are a blight and should be taxed out of existence. I live in a rural village which has been destroyed by these things and am moving out simply because of them. Surrounded by holiday homes is the worst of both worlds – no neighbours and no fields, just empty badly maintained houses.
And the owners when they turn up occasionally the odd weekend spend feckall money locally either. The damage has been done to many communities in Ireland already – stop it now. Rant over.