A TRAVELLER whose husband was shot dead recently in Tallaght is to be evicted today. It is the second time she and her nine children have been moved on since her husband's killing.
A 24 hour eviction order has been served on Mrs Josephine McCarthy to get her caravan and family out of Furze Road, at the Sandyford Industrial Estate in Co Dublin.
Her husband, John McCarthy (35), was shot and killed earlier this month.
A man has been charged with his murder and was remanded in custody when he appeared in Rathfarnham District Court last week.
After the killing, Mrs McCarthy left the area with her nine children six boys and three girls. The eldest, Johnny, is aged 11 and the youngest, Patrick, is Just over a year. She moved to Hillcrest, Sandyford, but was moved on from there. She went to the Sandyford Industrial Estate, where the eviction order was taken out against her.
She is anxious to stay in the Sandyford area because her brother, a member of the settled community, has a house there and is a source of help and support to her after her traumatic ordeal.
Father Frank Murphy, a Vincentian priest who is parish priest to the travelling community in the Dublin diocese, yesterday expressed his deep concern about the proposed eviction. He felt it lacked sensitivity and compassion. He said Dun Laoghaire/ Rathdown Council had said it could not provide housing for Mrs McCarthy and stressed that it was a matter for the neighbouring local authority, Dublin South County, which included Tallaght in its jurisdiction.
However, Mrs McCarthy does not want to go back into the area where her husband died and wants to be near her brother.
Father Murphy said. "We had hoped that Dun Laoghaire/ Rathdown would facilitate her, but their attitude has been very uncompassionate and unhelpful."
Cllr Betty Coffey of Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown said the decision to get the eviction order would have been taken by the administration. She would talk to the county manager this morning to see what could be done. The two councils should seek a suitable compromise. She said she sympathised with the woman.
She said the council had given a commitment to business people on the industrial estate to keep it free of travellers. There was already a hard site in the area. The business people were involved in a long running dispute with the council and had withheld rates over the problem.