ATTEMPTS BY Dublin City Council to relocate the Smithfield horse fair have stalled following objections from the Ballymun and Finglas area to the proposed new site for the monthly fair.
The council has for several years sought to move the fair out of the city for health, safety and management reasons, but has been blocked by an ancient market right of horse traders to hold their sales on the land.
It had identified an area in the northwest of the city, in the Ballymun/Finglas area, which would be suitable and had begun assessing the site earlier this year.
However, objections to the site, the costs of acquiring the land, and the costs associated with the council's running of the new site have become obstacles to the relocation, the council said.
The Smithfield horse fair is not managed or governed by any particular body, although the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does monitor its activities. Scores of regular traders attend on the first Sunday of every month to sell horses and sometimes caged birds at Smithfield square, and, according to the council, leave behind large amounts of horse manure and other litter which the council is forced to remove. The council attempted to close the fair in 2002 after a horse bolted and ran on to the quays, where it crashed into a car occupied by a woman and a child. However, the traders defied the ban and continued to attend.
The council has received legal advice that it would be unsuccessful if it sought a court order to discontinue the fair until an alternative suitable site was available because of old market rights.
Labour city councillor Emer Costello said the council was still actively seeking a new location. "The obstacles have to be overcome. I know there is a market right there, but in the 21st century health and safety has to take precedence."
Sinn Féin's Christy Burke was less optimistic about the prospects of a move. "Unless the Oireachtas changes the legislation on market rights, Smithfield is there for the long haul, it appears."
