| ROADSIDE memorials are springing up all over the
country as the human response to the horror of escalating road deaths. “I
visit our memorial very often’ said Eilish Moynihan, whose son was killed
two years ago in a road accident. “Sometimes you feel you need to do
something and it certainly helps to go and tidy up the headstone or put some
flowers there.” On November 18, 2000, her son, Noel Moynihan, 19, was
given a lift by a man. The driver lost control and the car plunged down an
embankment on the Castleisland to Bailydesmond road in Kerry. Noel Moymhan was
killed instantly but the driver survived He was charged with dangerous driving
causing death but was later acquitted in court. Six months after the accident,
Noel Moynihan’s family erected a memorial for their son at the scene of
the accident. Part of the inscription on the headstone says, “All the
world would be like heaven. if we could have you back again.” “As
time goes on, you begin to deal with it but your life is never the same
again,” said Mrs Moynihan. She lives in Scartaglen, Co Kerry, with her
husband Denis and three other children, Michael, 19, David, 17 and Noreen,
15. |
Mrs Moynihan said the memorial has made
her children more safety conscious. “Since we put up it up, they will not
sit in a car without a seatbelt. And it also stands as a final warning to
people as they approach that bend. It’s a dangerous spot and we don’t
want another one to die there,” she said.
It’s a belief that many
other families share. More than 400 memorials across the country have been
recorded and photographed by a website, Irish Roadside Memorials. But the
National Safety Council said the memorials, usually head-stones, plaques or
wooden crosses may put further lives at risk. “We fully recognise the
grief and trauma of the victims’ families. But driving requires full time
concentration and these memorials could be counter-productive,” said
safety council chief executive Pat Costello. In the US, roadside memorials are
a contentious issue. Local authorities have banned them, disc jockeys have run
campaigns to take them down and secular groups have objected to the
‘religious symbolism’ of cross-shaped memorials. The founder of the
Irish Roadside Memorials website said the debate in Ireland would grow.
“We are going to hear a lot about these memorials in Ireland in
future. |
People are already questioning their
existence, enquiring if they have got planning permission,” said Jerry
Cremin. Under current planning regulations, families are allowed to erect
roadside memorials which are less than two metres square and less than two
metres in height. Most of the Irish memorials fit these requirements. Tipperary
County Council said bigger memorials would require planning permission.
“However, we have the right to refuse permission for any memorial if there
are traffic safety concerns,” said the council’s executive engineer
Rory O’Callaghan. Roadside memorials are part of a modern trend called
spontaneous memorialisation. This is when the public creates instant memorials
to mark those who have died unexpectedly. In Britain, it happened after the
death of Princess Diana and in the US, after September 11. Last April, when two
gardaí, Tony Tighe and William Padden, were killed in Donnybrook by a
teenage joyrider, members of the public left hundreds of flowers at the scene
of the accident.
• The Irish Roadside Memorials’ website is:
www.iol.ie/~roadside/ |
Roadside memorials are tinged with controversy as
well as sadness,