LATE NIGHT and early morn’ revellers may use pub toilets to create room for more swigging.
But after that it is open season as a local housing area and a church grounds are being used as public toilets after closing time.
Locals decided to bide their time in the hope that the problem, a threat to public health, would go away.
But, if anything the mess got worse and so residents of Maudlin Street and the greater St John’s Church grounds area decided to kick up a stink.
Kilkenny County Council was lobbied in a bid to flush out the offenders.
As a proposed solution a set of steel gates was commissioned from local firm Shellumsrath Engineering by the council.
So the Gates of Hell or the Gates of Heaven, depending on which side of the conundrum one found him or herself, were constructed.
All the neighbours want is respect and peace, ensuring that weekend mornings will be free from the pong of pee and worse.
PEEING AND BOWEL MOVEMENTS
Idea is that the excellently honed steel gates will lock out any possible offenders while protecting local homes from indiscriminate peeing and bowel movements.
Plan is that keys to the gates will be given to local residents who can still come and go as they please.
Hope is that what we might call holy ground on the periphery of St John’s O’Loughlin Memorial Church will be restored to normality
Also that Maudlin Street residents, some of them elderly, will no longer have to put up with the disgusting aftermath of what some might term boozing sessions.
A drill that should include closure and re-opening times of the gates has not yet been put in place, nor have residents received any keys.
So locals remain on a wing and a prayer but optimistic that a battle plan will swing into action soon, now that the protective barricades have been put in place.
Those who indiscriminately use public areas to spend a metaphorical penny will now have to look elsewhere.
You can bet your bottom dollar that they won’t be welcome anywhere else either in the great outdoors.
