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No Monty

Posted Thursday, September 30, 2010

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Monty

I posed the question a couple of weeks ago asking if Moville should make more out of being the home town of Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, who lived here from the ages of 3 to 15.

After Churchill he is the second most well know British name from World war II.

Churchill had every bell in England ring after Monty's victory against Rommel at Alamein.

After the war Churchill said that before Alamein Britain hadn't won a battle against the Germans.

After Alamein they never lost one.

Goldmine

There's definitely a goldmine there that could attract both British and American tourists throughout the year to Moville.

Opinion in Moville was mixed.

Some said that Moville was in trouble and if money and jobs could come out of it then that would be good.

Definitely Not

Others sought me out, though, to say definitely not.

There was the fact that he fought against Irish people in Cork.

Also, some people said that the Montgomerys looked down on the local people and only used them.

One guy said to me "I like your website but you want to leave the Montgomery issue alone".

Warts and All

It didn't make any difference that I said that all of that should go in, that it should be a 'warts and all' protrayal of him with both the good and the bad truthfully told for posterity.

Some people didn't want him at all - no matter what.

"We may be going downhill fast in Moville but we'ves till got our pride" said one.

I'm told that Moville used to be known as the three Ps - referring to Pianos, Poverty and Pride.

I don't know what happened to the pianos.

Consent Needed

Any use of Monty to attract tourists was never going to happen without the overwhelming majority of Moville people wanting it to happen.

It was never going to be one of those things that you could impose on the town.

So, unless anything changes, it looks as if there is too much opposition to it for it to happen.

Young and Old

It is not just older people who are against it but younger people too.

I'm tempted to say that this means that it is a dead issue for at least another generation.

However, times and attitudes could change.

Look how much they've changed over the border in just 15 years.

However, for the present, it looks as if this is one potential goldmine that the people of Moville want to leave buried.