February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Summer 1992
As a result of a search to find a new grounds for the GAA in New York, King’s College, in the Westchester county village Briarcliff Manor, is identified as possibly a suitable site for a new home for an Irish cultural, educational and sporting center for the tri-state area. A group named Tara Circle is set up, headed by Roscommon native Ed Sheeran.
August 1992
After several delays, Tara Circle officials sign contracts to buy King’s College. The initial $150,000 installment of the $700,000 downpayment is paid at the signing.
July 1993
Briarcliff Manor planning board asks Tara to submit a revised draft environmental impact statement.
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July 1993
Ed Sheeran reacts angrily to a 23-page letter sent to Briarcliff’s board of trustees by Tara’s opponents, Residents for the Future of Briarcliff Manor. “We are just shocked that in 1993 we are faced with this anti-Irish sentiment,” Sheeran said.
August 1993
First of nine often heated public hearing on Tara’s proposals takes place in Briarcliff Manor.
November 1994
After the nine hearings, as well as an array of revisions and concessions, including the dropping of senior GAA games, Tara is granted its special permit. Mayor Freda Delton says the village board and the planning board spent more than 1,000 hours deliberating on Tara’s proposal. Residents for the Future of Briarcliff says it will consider challenging the permit. In December, the group files a lawsuit against the board of trustees.
April 1995
Tara’s opponents on Briarcliff’s board of trustees meet with representatives of an affiliate of the Hyatt Corporation, a hotel and resort chain which was seeking a Westchester County site for a retirement community. It also emerges that the new board does not intend to defend the previous board’s decision unanimously granting Tara its special permit.
August 1995
Claiming that its civil rights had been violated, Tara files suit for $250 million against the Village of Briarcliff Manor. The case is still being pursued.
September 1996
In a statement to the Irish Echo, Tara outlines why its acquisition of King’s College in Briarcliff Manor did not take place. A week before this, the Echo had reported the collapse of the effort to acquire the property.
May 1997
Tara says its office in King’s College in Briarcliff Manor is broken into. Meanwhile, Yonkers Mayor John Spencer proposes that Yonkers City Council move forward on a proposal to allow Tara acquire part of the Elizabeth Seton College property, North Broadway. Tara now holds its meetings in Manhattanville College.
October 1997
Former Tara president Ed Sheeran seeks Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection as a result of debts arising from a failed business venture in his native County Roscommon.
July 1998
Harrison Town Comptroller Eleanor McDonald, once a staunch Tara supporter, says she will go all the way to the Supreme Court if she is not given a full accounting of Tara’s figures and transactions. She is also seeking a list of the names and addresses of board of directors and officers of an entity known as the Tara Center.