We must face up to the travesty that was flooding the Gearagh

Finally the word is out on the damage caused by the flood waters of the Lee back in 2009. In the interim, thousands of Corkonians have watched the film, River Runner, which gives a cinematic, detailed account of the true story of our ancient and well-loved river.

Many of your readers who have viewed the film have admitted that they simply were not aware of the damage those twin cathedral concrete structures, put in place in the 1950s to generate electricity for Cork, caused to the runs of wild Atlantic salmon, trout, and eel. As of 1957, the Silver Lee was no more.

The sad and extraordinary clear felling of our inland river forest delta in the upper Lee Valley would be unthinkable today. One must consider that thousands of Irish oak and yew trees in this ancient alluvial river forest spread their roots and acted as a huge natural soaking ground and flood barrier in the Upper Lee Valley.

There are four inland river forest deltas on the earth and it has been established that the Gearagh on the Lee is the last one that remains ecologically intact.

The time is nigh for our government officials to seriously rethink the functionality of the dams on our lovely Lee. The Gearagh should be sanctioned as a world heritage site and will grow back if the flood waters from the unmanned dam at Carraig an Droichead were dropped.

Wild Atlantic salmon is in jeopardy and the reasons are varied. But two very-poorly functioning and aged Borland fish-pass systems are in no form or shape helping the matter. If the reservoir is near brim full, which at Inniscarra Dam is the case as the head height is required for generation, it is inevitable that flooding is a high-risk matter.

This is clearly what occurred in 2009.

To date, more than 2,400 people have signed a petition which will be delivered to our responsible ministers to re-think our wonderful river Lee and our unique and magnificent river forest, the Gearagh.

The positive impact, environmentally and economically, would be enormous.

The ESB have the money, the power, and the technological expertise.

The Free the Lee petition can be signed at www.mp2films.com

Declan O’Mahony

mp2films

Shannon Buildings

Old Mallow Road

Cork