Controversial Castlebar Independent councillor Frank Durcan slammed the amount of money that will be spent by Mayo County Council on housing and maintaining the Clarke Collection in Ballina. Under the freedom of information act Cllr Durcan received a copy of the contract entered into by Mayo County Council with Mrs Anne Clarke the widow of the late Jackie Clarke who amassed the collection over a number of years.
The terms of the contract include a €30,000 per annum payment linked to the consumer price index to Independent Ballina town councillor Peter Clarke, son of the late Jackie Clarke, from 2007 until 2037, for occasional consultation work. The contract also stipulated that Mrs Anne Clarke could remove a number of items from the collection at her discretion and dispose of them for her own benefit if she wishes. Under the terms agreed the council must also employ suitably qualified staff for the library, bear responsibility for the insurance, conservation and preservation of the collection, purchase and maintain the building in which the collection will be housed, as well as commission a bust of the late Jackie Clarke to be placed in the library.
Cllr Durcan told the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council that it cost the council €2.85 million to buy the old provincial bank in Ballina to house the collection, a further €284,000 in stamp duty, €24,400 in auctioneer’s fees, and €11,500 on solicitor’s fees. He went on to say that he believed it would cost in the region of between €7 million and €8 million to get the project completed and the library opened.
Cllr Durcan also dismissed the value the general public will put on the collection once it is opened to the public. “While this collection will be valuable to the students of Irish history, it will not mean a great deal to the ordinary members of the public who are unlikely to visit in their droves,” he said. Durcan also took a swipe at the Fine Gael party during the meeting saying, “We are building a monument to a republican who would not accept the constitution and democracy in Ireland, and the Fine Gael party who control this council is allowing this to happen.”
Cllr Durcan made his comments after a presentation by Sinead McCoole, the curator of the collection, on a recent trip to the United States where the collection was promoted. All other speakers at the meeting spoke of their support for the work done by the council in securing the collection for Ballina and the potential it has for attracting tourists to Ballina. Independent councillor Gerry Ginty told the meeting that he thought Cllr Durcan went too far in some of his comments. “I agree that too much money was paid for the building, but what’s done is done and this project will hopefully be a lasting legacy to Ballina and Mayo,” Cllr Ginty said. “I can look around this chamber and see that every party has come from the party of the gun. I have great affection for Michael Collins, the greatest figure in the Fine Gael party, the gun and the pike is attached to everyone one of our backgrounds, and I’m glad to see that the Fine Gael party can put the past in the past and see the immense value that this collection will bring.”
