Farmer set to donate land for Travellers
community
AN ELDERLY bachelor farmer is giving away his land worth ¤1.6million
to the local Traveller community.
Barney Kearney from Carnaross in Co. Meath admitted his plan had caused
a huge row among the local community but said he was determined to press
ahead regardless of local objections.
The 80-year-old farmer said: “I don’t need money and I don’t
need land. The only bit of land I need is six by three.”
He said he had recollections of Travellers working on his farm in years
gone by.
He said: “They led hard lives but I never had any bother with them.
He has now instructed a solicitor to transfer ownership of his 65 acres
of prime Meath farmland to the Navan Travellers’ Workshop.
Two solicitors had first tried to discourage him and then refused to represent
him before a third agreed to effect the transfer.
Farmland in the area is currently fetching around ¤25,000 an acre.
Mr Kearney said he had first considered donating the land to either Kells
Town Council or the health board and had mentioned this idea to a local
politician but nobody had come back to him.
It was after he listened to a radio documentary about the Traveller community
that he decided to give the land to them.
Navan Travellers Workshop has been in existence for 40 years, running
educational and training programmes for Travellers.
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