200 gather to support calls to reopen Ballincollig Fire Station 

On Friday evening some 200 people gathered outside Ballincollig Fire Station, closed now since November 2021, and at times their chants in support of striking firefighters were drowned out by the appreciative honking of cars passing by on the Leo Murphy Road.

The demonstration had been organised by locals to demand the immediate reinstating of a fulltime fire service for Ballincollig, and young and old raised their voices in support.

Over a fortnight ago, SIPTU members employed as firefighters in Cork City commenced limited industrial action in a bid to see Ballincollig’s station reopened, with members claiming that a lack of resources is “endangering members and public safety”.

At last Monday night’s meeting of Cork City Council, a Sinn Féin motion calling for the immediate reopening of Ballincollig Fire Station was passed unanimously.

The council’s assistant chief executive Brian Geaney told the meeting council management had asked the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to get involved in the dispute.

Last week, a spokesperson for SIPTU told The Echo that the union was “ready, willing and able to engage but, as advised to the council both verbally and in writing, we require sight of the proposal … before we engage with the WRC”.

One of the organisers of Friday evening’s demonstration, Mags McKenna, told The Echo she was delighted to see such a turnout by local people, saying it showed the depth of feeling in Ballincollig for its firefighters, and she added that this would only be the first of many demonstrations.

“When you have the presence of a fire crew in your community, a fire crew that saves lives, that is so important for the community, and something like that is worth fighting for,” she said.

Ms McKenna added that when Ballincollig was incorporated into Cork city in 2019, it had had a working fire station and had been promised an “equal to or better” service after the boundary extension, and, she said, Ballincollig was demanding that that promise be kept.

Public representatives from across the political spectrum were out in force on Friday evening, with TDs, city councillors and likely future candidates all lending their support and demonstrating that Ballincollig Fire Station is only likely to be an even more important issue in the area going into the future.