This week’s round-up kicks off with a story which is reported in the Waterford News & Star,The Munster Express, the Dungarvan Observer and the Dungarvan Leader – and it concerns the proposed 74-kilometre Dungarvan to Mallow Greenway, the delivery of which is anything but certain…
In the week that the official opening of the Waterford Greenway’s Bilberry section has been deservedly and heavily reported on in print, online and on air, this week’s newspapers are all justly reporting about the proposed Dungarvan to Mallow Greenway and I’ve a feeling that this is a story which is going to run well into 2024 and beyond as well; and it really has the potential to be a significant local election issue next summer in both West Waterford and East Cork.
It was the last major agriculturally-themed story I wrote for the Waterford News & Star and I suspect – and hope (!) – that my colleagues will forgive me by my referring to my own copy in this instance!
Just over a week ago, an IFA delegation met with officials from both local authorities in Waterford and Cork to highlight the serious concerns of farmers over the proposal with IFA Waterford Chair John Heffernan stating: “It appears that the Councils and project managers did not initially realise that the old abandoned railway line is long gone and that this land is now active farmland in private ownership, making it totally unsuitable for a greenway.”
Now it’s also worth noting that unlike both the Waterford Greenway and the South East Greenway which will ultimately connect Davitt’s Quay to New Ross, there is no physical railway track between Dungarvan and Mallow and there are now just a few reminders of its imprint between both towns along the way at present – indeed, 88 per cent of lands the line once ran through is now private, active farmland. Both the IFA and ICMSA have held public meetings about the proposal in recent weeks and a consensus of opposition to the proposal has emerged from these gatherings.
A project team formed by both Councils estimates that approximately 140 landowners may be directly impacted by the emerging preferred route with a City Hall spokesperson commenting that “consultation is currently underway with these individuals as well as a further 100 landowner whose land is adjacent to the emerging preferred route.
This project team expects to meet with the remaining 70 landowners – most of whom are located between Lismore and Dungarvan over the course of this month – with a further round of public consultation “expected to take place towards the end of the year”. I suspect this is a story we’re going to hear a great deal about well beyond 2023…
Turning now to The Munster Express, where this week, Adam Doheny reports on the unveiling of a memorial to a Waterford-born World War II prisoner of war escapee in the Basque Country…
The story of Tom McGrath, from my own neck of the woods in Portlaw, has been well documented in The Munster in recent years by Kieran Foley – now of WLR News – and now Adam has taken up the running with news of a memorial which has been unveiled by the Basque Pyrenees Freedom Trails Association.
Believe it or not, but this particular association currently has a Waterford-born president called Joe Linehan who explained that, and I quote: “once a year, “normally in June and we go on a trail from the French Basque country, over the Pyrenees or across the River Bidasoa to the Spanish Basque country. The trails follow the routes taken by escapees and evaders during the second World War from Nazi occupied Europe. There were various ones right across the Pyrenees but most of them were concentrated in the Basque Country.”
One of these trails included the final leg of Tom McGrath’s remarkable escape from the Stalag XXA camp in Nazi-occupied North West Poland – which took him from Poland to Berlin, from Berlin to Paris via The Netherlands, from Paris to the French Basque country before crossing the Pyrenees into the Spanish Basque country. He was taken to prison by the authorities in Franco’s Spain for a further year before he was eventually repatriated via Gibraltar in April 1943.
Both Tom’s son, Tom Junior and grandson Eric attended last weekend’s commemoration and of course Tom Junior wrote all about his father’s remarkable escape in the well-received book, ‘Unspoken’, which was published just over a year ago. Tom Junior expressed his gratitude to those brave Pyrenean locals who took in his father over 80 years ago, without whom, as he put it, wouldn’t exist today…
And finally this week, a trail of a different kind somehow traversed by a ginger cat named Milo (right) made for a feel-good piece written by Jo Bell in this week’s Dungarvan Leader…
Thankfully, this story also had a happy ending for its four-legged protagonist who had been missing for a two and a half weeks until local resident Joe O’Riordan spotted Milo outside Dungarvan Post Office last Monday week.
Joe told the Leader he called Milo over “and he was very friendly”. From there, he posted a photo of the cat on his Facebook page in the hope of locating the owner before he recalled “that Jane Casey had been missing a cat some time before”.
Joe then called Jane who confirmed it was her cat in what the paper described as an incredible reunion.
Why incredible, you may well ask? Well, I’ll hand proceedings over to Jane to explain why. She told Jo: “Milo went missing for a week back in January. So my friend bought him one of those Apple Air Tags, so I had that collar on him, and that’s how I knew he was gone. I was actually gone on holidays. I checked on my phone to see was he at home, and it showed me that he was in a house down from Carriglea School.” So this prompted Jane’s son to go to Carriglea but alas there was no sign of Milo.
A day later, Jane went online and lo and behold, the cat tracker indicated that Milo was on the M9 near Kilcullen in County Kildare but by that evening was back in Carriglea – with Jane assuming he had returned home either by car or van.
A few days later, another ping on the tag revealed Milo to be in Grattan Square and one phone call later by Joe O’Riordan, pet and owner were happily re-united with Jane full of gratitude to Joe for finding and holding onto Milo – so all’s well that ends well!
I review Waterford's local newspapers every Wednesday morning on WLRfm's 'Big Breakfast Blaa with Ollie & Dymphna: https://www.wlrfm.com/shows/the-big-breakfast-blaa
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