TRAVELLER families who moved into a €5 million accommodation centre in Hollyhill feel that their mental health is suffering because they don’t have access to horses, and warn they feel increasingly isolated in their new homes.
Although City Hall worked with residents to custom-build houses at the St Anthony’s Park development to the families’ specifications, some members of the community say that they may now move out.
They moved in last June, coming from an older halting site a few hundred metres away. Accommodation on the new development includes seven fully fitted-out houses between one and four bedrooms in size, nine bays including new mobile homes as well as a separate welfare unit consisting of a kitchen/dining/living area, utility, bathroom and entrance hall.
Ellen Stokes, who lives in the new accommodation, is a mother of nine, ranging in ages from four to 20. Her 18-year-old son committed suicide a few months before the family moved into their new home. His cousin also took his life shortly afterwards. Mrs Stokes’ eldest son is still trying to process the deaths. “He doesn’t come out any more. The doctors are coming to see him every day,”
Ellen Stokes with Bridget and Jimmy Stokes at St Anthony’s Park Housing Scheme, Hollyhill. Picture Liz Dunphy.
Mrs Stokes said. Lack of access to ponies is a major cause for complaints among residents in the new development in Hollyhill.
“It’s very depressing, I’ve a load of boys, and there’s nothing for them to do since the ponies are gone. The boys are used to ponies, they occupy their minds, now they’re only sitting down watching TV, it’s deeply depressing,” Mrs Stokes said.
A sulky sits unused outside the Stokes’ new home, and an ornate gypsy caravan looms in the background, half covered in protective plastic, an echo of the life they say they still want.
Mrs Stokes’ husband was involved in an illegal sulky race on the Cork to Mallow road, and as a result was banned in court from driving for five years. The family moved their ponies near Clonakilty, but it is difficult to get down there, and Mrs Stokes fears it will be difficult to get food to the horses during the winter. While she described the old halting site as over-run with rats and a health hazard, she points out that at least men living there had something to do.
“Now everyone’s on their own in separate houses, we hardly see one another, it’s like living alone out in the woods, and nobody’s happy,” she said.
Denis Stokes also lives in St Anthony’s Park with his wife and their nine children.
“People are getting very depressed because they have nothing to do now that the horses are gone, and the kids are idle when they come home after school now. Getting rid of the horses is as if you had running water and you suddenly stopped it,” said Mr Stokes.
“Going out with the horses clears your mind, and a healthy mind is a healthy body,” he added.
Mr Stokes said the community wants access to some vacant land around the houses so they can build their own stables.
“It’s a lovely place here but we need access to horses, and we will not sit around here if we cannot keep ponies,” said Mr Stokes.Valerie O’Sullivan, director of housing with the City Council said that as the housing authority, they provided a state-of-the-art development for the families at St Anthony’s Park and, as director of housing, her remit does not extend to the accommodation of horses. She said her division of the Council has neither plans nor a duty to provide this at the present time.