As funding appears to be boosting amenities across Carlow and Kilkenny, one businessman on the border is wondering why the River Barrow can’t attract a piece of the pie.
Now more than ever people are taking to the great outdoors, within their 5km stretches, for fresh air and exercise as well as enjoying the scenic sights on their doorsteps.
Last week monies were announced for walkways across both counties – details of that here while bigger projects include the Greenway through South Kilkenny.
Waterways Ireland’s plans for a upgraded Blueway along the Barrow were scuppered and Martin O’Brien of The Mullacháin in St Mullins says while that must be accepted, surely something could still be done to everyone’s benefit.
He told KCLR News “It was turned down because it’s an area of special conservation, which is fair enough, but I think the other side of it: it’s time that the council got together with Waterways Ireland, compromise, in other words take in the cares and worries of people, but it is a national asset, the villages on the way are dying, you know, when you look at Graignamanagh, Goresbridge all the way up there’s shops closing, Ulster Bank is closing in Carlow Town, Bank of Ireland is closing a lot of its branches like Graignamanagh, so it’s just down, down down, for all of these villages and this would be a huge boom”.
Mr O’Brien adds “It’s about compromise, it’s about getting Carlow County Council and Waterways Ireland together and bashing their heads together and saying ‘come on lads, you have a huge fantastic facility here, come up with something, come up with something that’s reasonable to everybody but don’t abandon it'”.
He also says “If you take a look at the New Ross Greenway, when you’re going from New Ross to Waterford on the old railway track is about 13.5 million, we’re not talking about a couple hundred thousand here, this is a major project like The Suir River was 5.5, the Shannon 76 million so we’re talking about major investment here and the population of Ireland at the minute is five million, they reckon it’s going to be about 10 million in the next 20 to 30 years and it’s providing facilities for people in Ireland”.
Mr O’Brien too notes “Also what’s unique about the River Barrow is it’s flat, and from the point of view from people who have poor abilities, older people that you have a nice clean, dry track which, at the moment since the Coronavirus epidemic started it’s being used a lot more but what’s happened is it’s been turned into pure muck in places because again it’s wet, it’s not a proper track for all year round but you couldn’t put a wheelchair in it, or for elderly, we passed elderly people above Graignamanagh yesterday and they were barely making it around”.
