What makes Creggs tick?
A reader from Creggs has taken issue with columnist Frank Brandon…
Creggs, Co. Galway
Dear Editor,
With regard to Frank Brandon’s column last week (Roscommon People, 15/9/17 – ‘Places, pontificating, potholes…and people’) and the pontificating that he does/did that week and every
other week, I wish to respond!
I don’t entirely agree with Frank’s opinion with regard to Creggs and what makes the village great!
I would like to address what I considered are omissions by Frank.
Firstly, I am deeply saddened and angered that he seems to think that only ‘Mikeen’s’ exists in the village!
We have other businesses that thrive and make that village exist and I think they also deserve recognition and praise.
Our Plaice is open six days of the week along with the Hoof n Fin, John Gavin Motors, Creggs Motors, Gannon Bros, Flutterby Crafts and of course Creggs National School.
We also have Creggs Rugby Club and Creggs GAA Club. Creggs would not be Creggs without all of the above businesses, the school and sports clubs. Creggs has a lot more to offer than “one pub, one shop and one post office”, all, to quote Frank, in the one building.
Although he would suggest that he isn’t, I feel Frank is very negative.
You would think that a man who writes a column every week would be promoting his village and what other rural villages have to offer, rather than pontificating about the same stuff and same place every week!
Yes, it (a village such as Creggs) is all about the people, its infrastructure and how they work together as a community, not begrudgery.
Yes, Frank is a local man and I respect that, but what I don’t respect is hard-working businesses in our community being overlooked.
Only last Thursday a few ladies who arranged a Coffee Morning at the Hoof n Fin in support Ireland’s biggest Coffee Morning raised €535 and sent the proceeds to Roscommon/Mayo Hospice; a massive achievement in a small village in just two hours.
We all work hard and keep the lights on in the village while offering lots of services!
Now that’s what makes a village good, not leaving people or businesses out.
Make everyone welcome and treat others as you wish to be treated. That’s what make a village ‘tick’!
Yours sincerely,
J. Kerr
Peter Wrafter has some suggestions that readers will find interesting…
Home loans, defaults, repossessions and vulture funds
Cloonlaughnan, Mount Talbot,
Co. Roscommon
Dear Editor,
Behind every bank application to the courts for the repossession of a family home, due to default of repayments, are fundamental issues that are common to all ‘Home Purchase Contracts’ with banks and on which all subsequent litigation for recovery is based.
Unless there are key, fundamental changes to the current contract format, used by all banks, then there will be no change to the outcome – repossessions and sales of your contract at a big discount, to ‘Vulture Funds’. Einstein defined insanity as: “Repeating the same exercise over and over and expecting a different result each time.” That is what every new house purchaser is doing when signing the existing, ‘house-purchase contract.’
There are two fundamental changes needed to the current ‘home purchase contract’ – one is the amendment of an existing clause and the other is the addition of a new clause:
1: Amend the current ‘Securitisation’ clause in use – “to give the purchaser the same right as the ‘Vulture Fund’ to bid for his contract at a reduced amount than owing.
2: Introduce ‘Non-Recourse Debt’ contracts for ‘Family homes’.
There are a number of states in the USA that have ‘statutes’ that require ‘Non-Recourse Mortgages’ – this means that the loan is only secured on the property in question; if the borrower defaults, the lender can only seize and sell the property in question, but if the property sells for less than the debt, the lender cannot seek the ‘deficiency balance’ from the borrower. This is especially important for the ‘self-employed’.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Wrafter
Coffee break (Thanks, Ciarán)
Dear Editor,
While doing the ‘Restore Roscommon Hospital A&E’ vigil during the rain on Saturday last with my colleague Harry Dunne, we were approached by a nice young man who gave us two takeaway cups of coffee, complete with milk and sugar. Wow. We were not expecting anything like this from anybody, much less someone we had not previously known or met.
When we asked him, he said his name was Ciarán Flynn from Tulsk, and that he works in Dublin as a plasterer. He saw us as he passed the hospital on his way home, drove to Supermac’s in town, bought the hot drinks and drove out to the hospital again. To say we were impressed with this young man’s generosity and kindness, is indeed putting it mildly.
Isn’t is wonderful to know that there are such thoughtful, considerate and kind young people in our midst today, at a time when some young people get a lot of bad press and older people tend to ‘paint them all with the same brush’? Maybe we should be asking, what kind of example did they get from some/many of those in positions of responsibility and power over the years!
Míle buíochas a Chiaráin, the future looks good with people of your calibre setting the pace and example. We shall not forget your kindness.
Is mise le meas,
Bill Cunningham/Liam
Ó Cuinneagáin,
Baile Ros Comáin
