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Plaque Commemorating Ballinagar Man Removed

Thursday, 12 January 2012

The late Donal Bolton.

THE Bolton family have mounted a campaign to have a memorial plaque replaced at the spot where Donal Bolton died in Australia two years ago.
Ballinagar man Donal Bolton was just 23 years old when he was struck by a car in Cairns, Queensland on January 5, 2010.
Mr Bolton died as a result of the impact and his girlfriend, Justine Walsh, who was with him at City Place, Cairns at the time, was injured.
The family arranged to have a small plaque erected in Donal's memory and were disappointed to discover recently that it had been removed.
Speaking to the Tribune this week, Donal's father Hugh (Eugene) said they learned of the memorial's removal when photographs were sent to Ireland last week.
Hugh's sister Patricia, who lives north of Brisbane, Queensland, had taken a photograph when she was leaving flowers at City Place to mark the second anniversary of Donal's death.
‘We had an arrangement where flowers would be put there on the anniversary and we found out from the pictures that the plaque was gone,' said Hugh. The family arranged to place the plaque, which was illustrated with an image of Donal, at a wall at City Place, on a small open piece of parkland where Donal and Justine were sitting when a car went out of control and left the adjacent road.
As there was no formal procedure for the installation of a memorial with the local authority, Cairns Regional Council, the family believed they could put one up themselves, as often happens in Ireland.
‘We put it up in April (2011) when we were out there,' explained Hugh, who said his wife Margaret, and their two other children Eoghan and Elaine, as well as Justine, travelled to Australia.
‘We put it up and had a little ceremony in the Calypso Inn where they were staying at the time,' he added.
A plaque was also placed at the Calypso, a popular hostel for backpackers in Cairns, a coastal city close to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, one of the country's most popular tourist regions.
City Place is in the centre of Cairns and attracts visitors because it is where shops and tourist offices are located, and where free entertainment takes place.
‘We thought maybe people would see the plaque and just think of Donal for a moment,' said Hugh.
Concerned about the removal of the plaque, Hugh's sister Patricia wrote a letter to the local newspaper, the Cairns Post.
Cairns Regional Council denied that their staff had removed the memorial but did say they felt City Place was an unsuitable location for the plaque as the area was going to be redeveloped.
Hugh Bolton said he does not know who else would have taken down the plaque. 'It was just heavy handed by the council. I thought that because they have my email address if they were going to take it down they could have emailed me.'
Mr Bolton said he was always 'in two minds' about making an issue of the matter and had never sought publicity at all about his family's tragedy.
‘There's people in Tullamore and the area around who have lost sons and daughters in accidents and my grief is no greater than theirs and I don't want in any way to take away from their grief by this publicity,' he said.
Because of the hurt caused by the removal of the plaque, the family have now decided to go public.
‘We haven't contacted the council because we're hoping to generate a bit of pressure first before we get onto them,' he said.
Two brothers of Hugh's, Joe and Aidan, will be travelling to Australia in March and will visit Cairns.
‘It's very important to us and this may be the only way were are going to achieve anything,' said Hugh.
It was reported at the time of the accident that the driver of the car which struck Donal and Justine may have had a medical condition.
Donal Bolton was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Raheen on January 16, 2010.

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