The communities of Carrick, Glen and Kilcar are still in shock at the announcement at last night’s Carrick Development Committee meeting by James Doherty that he will not be going ahead with the proposed Distillery in Clogher due to ongoing delays that have frustrated him and is relocating to Ardara where he has purchased a site in Sandfield. In a passionate address to the near 100 in attendance he spoke with dignity as he always does and informed those there about the strides this new company has taken in it short life and how the company is now global, he did not want it to come to this and he's very dissapointed but can't afford any more hold ups and was sadly was left with no other option.
He also told about the objections to the project and when he did get planning more obstacles were thrown in front of him meaning they could not proceed with the development in the Bull Field as the issue is back in court again (I will not go into this here as there’s too much to add but all with come out in due course). One of the most striking things he said (there were quite a few revaluations that shocked the crowd) that while he got backing from Kilcar and Ardara Parish Councils he did not get it from our local Development Committee or Lár Chomhairle (I would like to add that not all people on these committees were against it just a few individuals and that was enough to to damage) the very people that should be backing projects like this did not, the fact that members of the Development Committee wrote objections is baffling.
People in the area are at a loss as to why anyone would want to stop a development that was to create 40 jobs and the knock on effects of that for the community’s would have been huge, what business in their right mind would now want to set up in Carrick? We are the laughing stock of the county and the joke is on us, how can we recover from this?
Finally the people of Carrick and local community’s would like to wish James and Moria the best of luck in the future and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for coming “home” to set up a business in Carrick and how sorry we are that it did not work out. I would also like to thank James for his ongoing support for the website and he will continue to be the main advertiser which means I can keep the site going as it voluntary and for the community to use.
