Locals call on council to ‘bin the bond’ for Piper’s Funfair

CAMPAIGNERS are planning a rally to protest a decision they say is preventing a Cork funfair from returning to a venue it had occupied for almost a century.

Piper’s Funfair, which has been running for 90 years in the town car park in Kinsale, had been expected to return to its traditional home this summer, but a local group says a demand by Cork County Council is “throwing further barriers” in the way of that return.

It emerged last week that Cork County Council has said it requires a €60,000 bond from the operators of the funfair before they can be allowed to set up in their traditional home.

The town car park was recently resurfaced at a cost of €140,000, and it is understood the bond, essentially a deposit, will be required to cover any costs accrued in the event of the surface being damaged when the fairground is erected.

Because of the pandemic, the funfair has not operated in Kinsale for three years, and the funfair’s owner, Brendan Piper, has said the prolonged closure had depleted its finances and they would not be able to meet the bond.

Previously, Cork City Council had refused permission for Piper’s traditional showman’s wagon to be parked on Short Quay, where it had been in place since 1939.

The council was also forced to reconsider a large rent increase in May of last year following a public campaign, an online petition signed by more than 2,000 people, and a Dáil intervention by then-taoiseach Micheál Martin, urging the council to “have a heart”.

A community action group led by former Piper’s worker Helen Hickey and local Green Party representative Marc Ó’Riain are holding a protest this Sunday at 2pm, leaving from Short Quay in the centre of town.

Mr Ó’Riain said the council had not followed Part 8 planning which, he said, would have required an official consultation process, and was a contravention of trading rights and of the planning process.

Mr O’Riain said the people of Kinsale had demonstrated their passion last year and were now being forced again onto the streets.

“I am calling on the people of Kinsale to come out in force this Sunday and stand in solidarity with the Piper family,” he said.

“I am calling on Cork County Council to have a heart, in the words of the former taoiseach. Bin this bond and let the funfair go ahead in Kinsale this summer.”

Cork County Council was asked for a comment.