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An Post won't recognise my home
"It's funny that when the County Council wanted to put a photo of me in their calendar a couple of years back, they were able to find me. But when I'm looking for a few bob to get through college, they don't know where I am." His river dwelling flooded, Dan O'Neill has been frustrated by the system
LIKE many Irishmen who depended on construction to earn a crust, Dan O'Neill is taking the Government's advice by getting some further education at Limerick Senior College.
But Dan has run into problems in getting a grant from the VEC as his unconventional way of life means he doesn't have a utility bill as proof of address. An Post doesn't even recognise his dwelling on the Plassey Bank as an address at all and he hasn't "got a letter in 10 years".
But it could have been worse still for Dan. He could have ended up without a roof over his head as the fisherman's hut he has called home for 10 years was engulfed in the Great Flood of November 2009.
There are six fisherman's huts on the Limerick bank of the Shannon neighbouring the UL campus and Dan is the last permanent resident. He was born in Kennedy Park but practically "grew up on the river" in a hut built by his granduncle Christy Considine, an Abbey fisherman.
The Shannon has been good to Dan since he moved into his Eden in 2000.
"I collect driftwood from the river to burn in the fire and I haven't bought a bag of coal in 10 years," he says.
And while conservationist Dan wouldn't take a salmon, the river serves up the odd meal in the form of trout or pike.
"A lot of people wouldn't eat pike at all but I got a great recipe from a Polish fella I know on how to cook it up nice with butter and garlic, wrapped in tinfoil and baked. Pike is gorgeous that way," says Dan.
On the side, the Limerick man who prides himself on self-sufficiency might have wild mushrooms picked from the meadows around Plassey.
But Dan's independence has been compromised for the time being after the HSE put him up in emergency accommodation as one of the many victims of the Shannon floods of November. He is already getting cabin fever in the William Street apartment he describes as "a dive" and wants to get back to the hut as soon as he can.
"I knew the river levels were high but I didn't expect the surge of water the ESB let down from Ardnacrusha. My friend Robert McLoughlin, who is going moving into one of the huts himself, gave me a call to ask me where I was.
"I said I was settling in for the night. Robert said he had met a security guard in UL as he was walking down. He was told he couldn't go down there. The ESB had rang the university to warn them about the surges from Ardnacrusha and UL were able to sandbag some of the buildings. But nobody warned me apart from Robert. He said 'take a look outside, you have to get out'," says Dan.
"I opened the door, which is a solid steel door with a prison lock, and it came straight in on top of me and in a short while I was in two feet of water and everything I had was destroyed, everything I put my whole life, blood, sweat and tears into. I had waders on and the water was nearly up to my waist. I had my dog swimming ahead of me on a lead, the kennel was floating around the garden, but I had to leave my rooster behind on his own."
"The thing is, I always felt confident about the river. I was reared on it. But we never saw anything like it. I was talking to an old man Mulcahy who said he never saw the huts flood in 70 years. But I suppose you didn't have a university built on a flood plain 70 years ago," he said.
"My wheelbarrow is older than UL," he adds to emphasise the point. "I remember the Stables when they had horses in them."
When he came back to the hutt the next day, everything he had accumulated was destroyed, including his bed, furniture, chainsaw, lawnmower and the generator he uses for electricity. Dan says that tradition goes back over 60 years to his granduncle, who had a windmill on the bank to generate power.
One of the few things he did manage to salvage was his boat, The Plassey Lass. And the rooster also survived. He has no insurance and is unlikely to be approved for it in any case. "My insurance is my dog (a rottweiler/doberman cross)," he says.
After the deluge, Dan is now reduced to getting dockets from the HSE for a new bed and a bag of coal.
"The President said that not a hair was touched on anyone's head (over the floods) but she should have spent Christmas with me. It was one of the most frustrating times of my life."
Further frustration comes from being unable to get the college grant he says he is entitled to. County Limerick VEC said this week that while it couldn't comment on individual cases, they hadn't received an application from Dan O'Neill and Government criteria required a utility bill from an applicant.
So why can't Dan produce an ESB, Bord Gais or Chorus bill?
"Well, I have a generator for electricity and I use candles or oil-light to read. I don't have a Sky bill because I'm a radio man," he explains.
The VEC said it could make exceptions on grant applications if the circumstances allow and encouraged him to talk to them. Dan says he has been kindly assisted by Senior College staff in making his case to the VEC and has actually gone in person to hand in applications – twice.
"Maybe I'm not just cut out for the modern world but I'm happy as I am. I went to college because labouring is finished and I'm not emigrating any more. I'm happy where I am and I want to keep the tradition (of people inhabiting the huts) alive. I don't think it's too much to ask.
"It's funny that when the County Council wanted to put a photo of me in their calendar a couple of years back, they were able to find me. But when I'm looking for a few bob to get through college, they don't know where I am."
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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