A cloak of armour for Seafield

By Peter O’Connell

RESIDENTS in Seafield and Cloghauninchy are happy that as much temporary defence work as possible has been undertaken in advance of this weekend’s high tide, which is expected to reach 5.9 metres.

Minister of State Brian Hayes visited West Clare last Friday where he saw firsthand the damage caused by the recent high tides and storms.

“The work commenced last Wednesday. It’s on a temporary basis and Minister Hayes gave an assurance that he would look for funding. Some of it will have to come in from Europe. The defences put in place last week are temporary and not a long-term solution. The Seafield houses are protected by bags of crushed stone and rock armour,” Cloghauninchy Action Group chairman, Michael Neenan said.

“I’d be fairly confident that it will hold out the sea but with a high tide of 5.9 metres, along with the waves we’ve had, it would be very hard to keep that out with the breeze. But without the breeze it wouldn’t be that destructive. All I can say is that between councillors, TDs, senators and engineers, there has been a first-class commitment from them. They worked tirelessly with our committee over the last fortnight. It’s not happening in any other part of Clare.

“We had nothing at all only sand dunes as protection. There are four Hymacs there today [Saturday] and they’ll be there again tomorrow. There are six or seven lorries drawing gravel and rock armour. There’s a tremendous amount of work going on,” Mr Neenan said.

The action group chairman said Minister Hayes gave a commitment ensuring that the funding would come and “he said that we won’t be forgotten about”.