The Sunday Tribune, 10 December 2000, page 19

William A Thomas: will form new political party if his dream of a new city in the west is thwarted
Joe O'Shaughnessy

Sacre coeur! Another party!

WILLIAM A Thomas, the Galway businessman who plans to build a city in the west, has threatened to form his own political party if the government refuses to support his proposed venture.

The colourful author of the proposal for the city, to be sited near Knock, has said he will establish a party capable of taking 35 seats in the next general election unless the Department of the Environment accepts his plan as part of its national spatial strategy.

"If they won't take this project on then we will have to take them on. This has to happen. People in the west want it to," he said. Thomas is holding a conference in Knock tomorrow in which he will outline his vision of the new city which he hopes to name the City of the Sacred Heart.