Breaking News
Storm causing serious flooding in city and county
Galway Bay fm newsroom – Many routes in the city and county are closed this morning due to serious flooding and hundreds have been left without power and phone lines.
Galway City Council is advising motorists and others to avoid all coastal routes through the city this morning as a result of the flooding caused by the storm and high tide.
Gusts of 130km/h were recorded at Mace Head on the Galway coast overnight, which is effectively hurricane category winds.
There is flooding along the Promenade from Blackrock to Seapoint to Grattan Road and motorists are advised not to chance going through the flood as there is debris in the water.
Leisureland in Salthill has also been flooded and will remain closed for the remainder of the morning while crews assess the damage.
Lower Salthill at Galway Business School is impassable at the moment as is Fr Griffin Road from Galway Technical Institute to Wolfe Tone Bridge and round by Spanish Parade, Flood St and The Docks to Lough Atalia.
However the water is receeding around the Docks area now.
Galway City Council crews are out working with An Garda Siochana and Galway Fire & Rescue dealing with debris and road closures.
In the county, Barna and Spiddal are experiencing severe flooding, while smaller roads in Oranmore and Clarinbridge are impassable.
There are reports of fallen wires across the road between Athenry and Coosaun cross and a tree down in Clonberne.
ESB crews have been working all night to try and restore power to the Recess, Oughterard, Barna, Moycuillen and Salthill areas.
A spokesperson for the ESB says the power had to be switched off in Salthill for safety reasons as flood damage was affecting some switch equipment.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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