“Our very own Camino of the South East”.
That’s the vision of one Kilkenny Councillor for the region’s newest Greenway.
Representatives at the Callan Thomastown MD meeting during an update on the project through the South of the county noted the “massive opportunities” for the entire county.
Counterparts in Piltown were last week given a presentation by Business Development Officer Jill Kelleher which showed that there’s already an offering set to spring up.
At last evening’s gathering at the County Council’s Callan Area Officer Cllr Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere pointed out “The Waterford Greenway’s been a tremendous success and the South East Greenway’s starting to take fruition and we’ve really good ideas and good plans to the Nore Linear Walk, and the consultants appointed there, to link Kilkenny via Bennettsbridge and Thomastown, Inistioge to New Ross to that Greenway and also then on the other side to bring the Greenway up through St Mullins in Griagnamanagh, Goresbridge, Bagenalstown up along”.
He adds “The opportunity here is massive for Kilkenny and for all those towns and villages up along, whether it be on the Carlow border or directly through the centre of Kilkenny, opportunity is massive there and we have all the infrastructure, we’ve all the heritage and culture you could ask for and if we can get it all linked up and joined together the opportunity is huge”.
Members had heard of the employment offerings at a similar stretch in Co Mayo and hopes are high of the same in this region.
Anybody with ideas is asked to approach the local authorities with Cllr Cleere telling KCLR News “The South East Greenway is taking shape, we’re nearly there on that but I suppose it’s to get the master vision and the bigger picture and if we can loop everything in together I have no doubt that we can have a Camino of the South East linking the whole way from the Waterford Greenway, Dungarvan, the whole way back up through New Ross and back up nearly towards Dublin, through ourselves Kilkenny, and through the South East”.
He also notes “The opportunity is huge and it’s just for local businesses and for the communities to get themselves ready because this is going to come and it’s just a matter of dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s, the master vision is there, all we need now is the funding but that will come, I’ve no doubt that will come and it’s like that old saying ‘ if you build it they will come’, when it’s there people will come “.
