The banks of the River Argideen tonight played host to a forum for the airing of the substantial grievances of the residents of Shannonvale, Clonakilty. The particular issues of potentially lethal traffic speeds and an outrageous environmental disaster, have long been on local minds, but repeated broken promises from authorities have recently brought the community’s anger to a head.

Following a call by one resident, John Allman, for concerned residents to convene to discuss these pressing matters, a substantial number of households were represented at the meeting.

Highlighting the Issues

The fact that the event took place in the outdoor setting of the riverbank, necessitated by the current pandemic, only served to further highlight the primary issues:
To attend the meeting, the locals firstly had to make their way along the public road, due to the lack of footpaths, and throughout the meeting, vehicles could be seen passing over the adjacent bridge at speeds well in excess of the designated 50km/h limit. Furthermore, to access the river bank, the participants had to not only tolerate the stink, but also dodge and weave their way around the many patches of raw human sewage that dot the pathway through what should be a public park and play area; luckily for the locals, we have had somewhat of a heatwave recently, otherwise the park would be entirely inaccessible due to the flood of effluent which normally engulfs the green.

Empty Promises

A number of attendees spoke out to express their anger at the lack of engagement to date by both Cork County Council and Irish Water, despite numerous representations being made on both matters for over two decades. Current and past members of the local Community Association attested to the fact that these matters have been raised time and time again with both elected representatives, and civil servants in these organisations, to be met with little more than empty promises of “assessments” and “reports”.

The meeting concluded with agreement on the formation of action groups specifically targeting the speeding and sewage issues, with follow up meetings to follow, once the action groups had discussed strategies.