Dunsink Fire

albertw

Breaking news:

"Meanwhile, gardaí have confirmed that there has been a fire at the observatory at Dunsink in Finglas.

The extend of the fire or how it began, is unknown. "


John got a call about this at the SDAS meeting.

From the same article "Part of the Navan Road was closed earlier in west Dublin because of a protest by a group of Travellers. The action caused severe disruption to traffic. A similar protest has been planned for tomorrow morning.

The Travellers were protesting at a decision by Dublin City Council to close off an access road to their homes at Dunsink Lane in Finglas because of extensive illegal dumping."

More on this to come....
_________________

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/1007/travellers.html

albertw

Just got a message from Leo Enright, via John Flannery. Apparently the fire was in a derilect block and the observatory is ok.

Cheers,
~Al

Flukey

I heard about that on the news earlier. It would be disastrous if it was damaged. The 11pm news on RTE Radio 1 just said there are two units of the Fire Brigade at the lodge house at the observatory.

albertw

Flukey wrote:

I heard about that on the news earlier. It would be disastrous if it was damaged. The 11pm news on RTE Radio 1 just said there are two units of the Fire Brigade at the lodge house at the observatory.

Yea, seems to have been a fire at the lodge house not the observatory alright.

Flukey

There seems to have been conflicting reports on where the fire was on later bulletins. Boards was down last night after midnight so I couldn't get in to see what the story was here. There was nothing on it this morning in the news. Do you know any more Albertw?

albertw

Yea, I tried sending an update, but as you say the site was down.

This from someone who was based at Dunsink until a few months ago http://www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=1079

Just been talking to Evert Meurs, thankfully the fire caused only very minor damage to the Lodge, which for those who don't know Dunsink, is located right next to the front gate. No damage to the main Observatory, or to Dunsink House where the researchers are based. The Gardai are watching the observatory tonight, and an increased security presence will be in place from tomorrow.

Just in response to Al's post, it is linked to the protestors, according to the Gardai. They tried to set the Lodge (which is unoccupied since William Dumpleton retired six months ago) alight when they returned to the encampment this evening.

Seanie M

This from a fellow poster on the IFAS site:

The fire at Dunsink Might not have been caused by the Travellers but rather by a group hired by property developers to clear the area and make it more easy to have the area redeveloped.

By setting the gate lodge on fire and pinning the blame on the travellers they hope to get the council and gardai to force these people out off the area resulting in it becoming available for development. Now with the fire and the uncertainty over the future of Dunsink a proposal is made to the powers that be that the entire area be sold off and either demolished to make way for new apartments or even turned into some hotel or something like that.

It's has occured in the past at locations all around the country and who's to say that it could not happen at Dunsink?

I haven't bothered to read through all the biggotry that is the damned Travellers thread in After hours, so I don't know if this is highlighted in there.

Seanie.