'A' wall

Just to let readers know that the post was deleted by Bloogger.com, not by me. It was flagged for review and judged to have violated the website's Threats and Harassment policy. It is funny how bullies always turn cry baby when their targets find an effective way of fighting back. That said, from Blogger.com's point of view the decision is understandable. The service has already given us a lot and its community guidelines are reasonable and deserve to be adhered to. So from now on, I will adjust future content to err on the side of passive resistance.

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I have three responsibilities: 

1. to achieve justice for my company. Not to ensure that my company wins, but to ensure that its hard fought for evidence is considered and weighed against the opposition's evidence, rather than be ignored by judges who would prefer that it did not exist. The responsibility is therefore ultimately to the courts themselves and to the standards they must hold so that all of us have protected rights. Boring stuff, I know, but kind of important. 

2. to secure public ownership for the stadium, not necessarily within my company. I have agreed, under some duress, to sell it to the FAI on two occasions, but sharp practice from the association put the kibosh on both deals. I have also agreed through third parties to effectively sell it to Westmeath County Council (at a big loss), but it is probable that the council didn't even know about the offer and instead were being used as leverage towards a more corrupt outcome. 

3. my only responsibility to myself is not to secure what is owed to me or recover what has been stolen from me but to secure a retraction of the smears against me which were written in the judgments of Richard Humphreys. 

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In April 2022, my company made Westmeath County Council an offer: if it applied for and succeeded in getting an injunction against the 2019 'settlement' (mostly on the grounds that its ability to recover its E507,000 charge against the property would be impeded by the 'settlement' terms), then we would pay E400,000 to the council to end the charge within three months of the final order. I also asked if the WCC Cathaoirleach Frankie Keena's nomination to the committee which would select the new owner of the stadium meant that Mr. Keena would be representing the Council's interests, and if there was any truth to Garda Dully's telling us on May 21st 2019 that ''We offered it to the County Council, tried to give it to them. They didn't want it.'' 

The Council's representative eventually replied more than a month later, saying ''I have no reply to make on the various questions posed by you to me ...'', ''The Court accepted the evidence on the part of the Club and rejected your evidence ...'', ''I can see no basis to your suggestion to apply for an injunction.'' and ''This transfer was subject to existing charges and I can confirm that our charge is registered on Folio 30190F. I have no further comment to make nor will I be further engaging with you on this matter.'' 

The latter point, though rudely expressed, is a legitimate one. But the fact remains that, unlike the Sport Minister's E2.8 million charge (now expired), the Council charge has never appeared in the accounts of Athlone Town AFC CLG, despite the representative's claim that ''I am in the process of engaging with the company in that regard''. Which raises the obvious question of whether or not the charge is ever actually going to be enforced by the Council.

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Of more immediate concern, in October 2022 I made a further enquiry of the Council, in relation to a possible purchase or lease by my company of St. Mel's Park, with a view to doing some rudimentary development and making it the home of Melville FC. The same representative told me that the Council had other plans for the property. Pushed on this, he said that ''Our plans could involve one or more of the functions for which the Council has statutory responsibility.'' When I mentioned my expectation of ''a consultation process with local residents, schools, sports clubs etc.'' he said ''Your expectations are correct.'' I said that if ''the plans are of a sporting nature, then we are basically offering our assistance.'' and left it at that.

I was taken aback when it was announced in September 2023 that Mel's was being sold to the Marist College for E120k. The Westmeath Independent reported that a notice to so dispose of the lands was approved ''without discussion'' at a meeting of the Council members. And just two months ago, it was reported that the deal was being done in a very peculiar way, with the transfer of the lands now being made to individual members of the order, on account of the school not being a legal entity. Why not simply do the deal with the order itself?

Back when Mel's was a centre of pride in the area, I remember a lot of resentment at the school's decision to have broken glass embedded on top of an eight foot wall which separated (and still separates) it from the 'football crowd' and from the people of Sarsfield Square. It would have been hard to believe then, that the school would take the stadium grounds themselves and that the locals would get absolutely nothing in return. That even the name of old St. Mel would be removed from the area, with St. Mel's Terrace to be replaced by a new 'urban quarter' - which doubtless helps soothe some uncomfortable memories for respected business types who liked to avail of certain underage services from the Terrace back in the day. Sometimes I hate this town.

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Speaking now to the people of Sarsfield and other communities which form the heartlands of football in Athlone: if you want your children to be left behind, then Official Ireland will be more than happy to oblige. Watch the show from the outside on your smart phones and that is what you will get. If, on the other hand, you want to preserve your heritage, then get out there, campaign and lobby Paddy McCaul, Frankie Keena and the other committee nominees to choose my company Athlone Town Stadium Ltd. to take back ownership of Athlone Town Stadium, where it was and will be safe for the use of the people of our town (as protected by its constitution - which is why the barristers went to such rounds to keep the constitution out of the courts). You may not realise it, but you have already invested in that thing in Lissywoolen. You need to protect that investment. We can then start a club which will mean something and give your kids a chance to show what they can do.