The Grant

The Grant  17

 “The Grant” was always very popular in Ireland and always announced with great fanfare by government and then came the announcement as to who was going to administer the hand out. Well in fairness the early days of the grant was a total joke and you needed to back scratch someone in the know to get it, so rules had to be invented, and they were and they grew and grew and the organisations to administer them Grew and Grew. Applying for a grant is like signing your own death warrant you will be filling out forms until you scream, quotations, planning, tax clearance, and reports which will cost you a fortune. Who benefits? Organisations that are big enough to run the gauntlet of officialdom or the poor devil who really needs the few bob but hasn’t been there before and has yet to be stung. My Dad always said “Be careful what you wish for.” Avoid grants where at all possible is my advice and save your soul.

A Bit of History 

A County Councillor, we will refer to him as “He” A pillar of society a man of legends. Everyone in St Mullins has a story to tell about this character he was just bigger than life. In small towns lands not a lot happens so every movement every happening no matter how small is a bit of news. “Did you hear?” RTE or Sky television could not and will not replace local gossip its personal, its local we know the characters and we are part of the stage; we all tell a different story about the same story, it’s how you hear it and from whom.

Shakespeare “All the worlds a stage, and all men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” Well the “He” was certainly a man of many parts.

In sixties the great era of milling came to an end with the closure of Odlum’s mills in St Mullins. Corn flakes had arrived and the big baker with his sliced pan replaced mammy and her out of the oven loaf, the age of convenience had arrived. The Government of the day was trying to reduce the number of flour mills as many were no longer able to make a profit and many were out of date. The Government paid Millers to decommission their mills, meaning they were broken up never to be used for milling again, they paid Odlum’s £40,000 that’s pounds to decommission. Odlum’s sold their mill to St Mullins Mills Ltd for £2,000 however if it was sold it on within 10 years, the purchaser would have to pay them a further £2,000, funny kind of arrangement and he could not reopen as a flour mill again. Well the He whose name shall not be mentioned, didn’t get off to a great start with the locals as he tried to lay claim to the Quay in front of the mills which Odlum’s had on lease from the C.I.E(The state transport company that ran the railroads canals and busses) by storing logs on it however he got the short shift from the locals and C.I.E.

He started a saw mill with a (Grant) and employed many of the ex-Odlum workers and the business appeared to run well for a number of years but it was impossible for people to get paid for their goods including the forestry. One of the men from the saw mill was collecting timber from the woods across the river but the forestry locked him and his truck full of timber into the forest as the logs weren’t paid for .He had to walk over to the bank of the river opposite the mill and roar and shout for someone to row over and pick him up .A week later the bill was paid and the timber collected

He Divided the millers house into apartments (Grant) and rented them out to local people, then he got the grand idea of building a hotel (Grant)using the house as the main reception area. When clearing out the area for the Hotel beside the house he used Gelignite to blast away the bank and in one of the blasts sent stones through windows of the house. He had been advised to put up sheeting to protect the windows but he wouldn’t listen sure wasn’t he able to claim for malicious damages. He dug out the side of house, built two bay windows, erected girders, had a party for the locals many of whom got food poisoning. He then refused to pay for the steel girders and the man came to take them back. The Hotel was never finished and the bay windows can still be seen today.

He started to dig a  hole for an  outdoor swimming pool  on the lawn in front of Odlum’s House and even had plans for a canopy over the pool .Swimmers would be able to look over the wall into the river this was an infinity pool well before its time, the hole was dug that was all.(Grant) He started to build a different swimming pool in the stables building using the original walls putting  wavin pipes (plastic pipes)through the stone wall which were held together with lime putty as the over flow.  . Now if water had ever been put in it the whole building would have collapsed. It was all about codding the lads up in Dublin for the (Grant). The floor of the shed was concreted with a slope for the shallow and deep end but that was that (Grant) received work stopped. The House burned down twice for which the insurance companies paid twice. When the Odlum’s house was built they brought in Italian tillers to tile the hall way which to this day is still perfect even after the house burning down.

        Chickens by the thousand were reared on the mill and Old grain store floors He Started            growing mushrooms with a (Grant) .He proceeded to lay concrete on the wooden mill floors which resulted in the rotting of the timbers as the concrete cracked and the water poured down through the floors and yes the whole lot did collapse and sits there to this day.

At the bend in the Mill Race he got a digger to take away the bank on the river side and then build it up again but it was now weaker and when the flood came it took away the bank .He then claimed a local blew a hole in the race and filed a malicious  claim against the council.

He looked for planning for the boat house as he called it which was the 4-story grain store but sure by giving it a posh name was bound to get it planning permission for a bar. He applied for planning in top field on the way up to St Mullins green for four houses and was turned down twice. You have to hand it to the man when cash was short, he was trying and trying to build an empire, a Donald Trump of his time

The Hotel that never was ,the house now lies in ruins