News
Former TD highlights success of flood scheme 20 years ago
Serious flooding between Kilcolgan and Ardrahan has been avoided for the last two decades after locals took the law into their own hands.
A simple solution back then of digging a trench for a distance of five miles to the sea has stood the test of time.
Retired TD Padraic McCormack recalls the floods of 1990 saw Kiltiernan National School submerged in three feet of water, forcing it to close for nine weeks and the children educated in Labane Hall. Ten houses on the Caheradoo Road were cut off for six weeks.
Padraic McCormack…memories.
In early 1995 the deluge of water returned to South Galway following very heavy rainfall, leaving several houses as well as a church submerged in up to four feet of water, with 15 houses evacuated and farmland lying under 20 feet of a flood.
He was contacted by local farmer Mattie Hallinan who said that unless something was done in the Kiltiernan district, people would be drowned as they faced another painful stint marooned.
“Mattie was able to point out that the immediate flooding was caused by the overflow of the Kemsella winter turlough. He said if a channel was opened from the flooded area across the fields to the Tullanafrankagh turlough and a further channel from there to the Fingal turlough, there was a sufficient fall to relieve the flooding from the school and the road to the isolated houses,” he stated in his book.
Contractor Malachy Donnellan, who had carried out a minor drainage scheme in Turloughmore, estimated the work at £20,000 and said he was willing to wait for payment.
The then-Junior Minister for Public Expenditure and the OPW Phil Hogan gave the verbal go-ahead for the unofficial flood relief scheme, which Malachy Donnellan began the very next day.
After two weeks of work, with water entering the newly built channel and flowing towards the turlough, Caheradoo Road was opened up to accommodate a three foot diameter steel pipe.
“That evening Mattie had a visit from a number of concerned residents from Ballindereen who, in no uncertain terms, informed him that if we let down any more water, that they would take the law into their own hands and deal with him,” Padraic recalled.
Panic had set in as the water levels rose across the county and they feared all the flooded area of South Galway would come down through the channel.
Mattie now believed the only option was to cross the road at Ballindereen and cut a channel to the sea Killeenaran, which meant more money and different land – the contractor’s machine could not make headway in the solid limestone it encountered west of the main road near Ballindereen.
A second contractor who had the rock breaking machinery was contacted but he needed payment upfront.
After a quick meeting with a friendly Bank of Ireland bank manager in Gort, Padraic was handed a cheque of £40,000.
The channel was completed in the deep rock from Ballindereen Road until Turlough Caoil with a further channel opened up in the soft ground until the sea at Killeenaran.
The next obstacle was to open a channel across the main road near Ballindereen Village, which needed a road-opening licence from Galway County Council.
The Council would not sanction it as it was not approved by the OPW. At this stage an oyster farmer also voiced his opposition, complaining that all the fresh water would destroy his stock.
The OPW were preparing to take out an injunction to stop the work.
Padraic hired an engineer in Tobins who secured an expert report from UCG on the affect of fresh water on oysters.
The licence was reluctantly granted by the County Manager Donal O’Donoghue with conditions attached about the depth of the crossing and work began in the middle of the night and the job completed four hours later.
“The water was now flowing from the flooded area south of the road into our channel and rushing on towards the sea at Killeenaran. I was there for this special moment and I never heard such a joyous sound,” he wrote.
By this stage, Kiltiernan National School was flooded to a depth of twelve inches, with sand bags now preventing the water from entering the school. The main road was passable but cars were stalling in the flood.
“The next morning Malachy rang me to say that the flood water had gone from the main road at the school. It was gone from the entrance to the school, and the Caheradoo Road was passable with only about eight or ten inches of water at the low point.
“Even though I had to go to the Dáil, I first went to Kiltiernan to see this miracle in action. When I got there the school, which had been surrounded, was completely clear and I could drive in the Caheradoo Road with only five or six inches of water on the lowest part of the road. This was an unbelievable feeling.
“Of all the work I did in my 24 years in the Oireachtas or my 15 years before that on councils, this was the job which gave me the most satisfaction,” he recalls.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
