Angry Clonmelians await action
THE glow and warmth of an open fire provided the perfect backdrop for a friendly game of cards in the Emigrants Rest.
The setting was in stark contrast to that of less than two months ago when the popular Old Bridge pub was submerged in water as Clonmel suffered yet again from the severe flooding that has targeted the South Tipperary town on such a frequent basis over the years.
This time, however, the floods were the worst in living memory and left a trail of devastation in their wake. People are still counting the cost but it has already run into millions of euros. Many of those worst affected are without insurance because the insurance companies refuse to give them cover due to the high risk factor.
Clonmelians, however, are a resilient lot, and while the pain of those October floods still lingers, most of them are striving determinedly to get on with lives.
Two weeks ago, Minister of State Tom Parlon was in town to announce that work on a major flood prevention scheme will start in the New Year. “Santa Claus has come early to Clonmel,” quipped one local Borough Council member.
Not everyone, however, is holding their breath that Mr Parlon and the Government will deliver on that promise. In the past, many similar promises have been made by successive governments of varying political colours but have been reneged upon. “We have been talking about a flood relief scheme for more years than I would care to remember but it has never happened,” said Martin Johnson, proprietor of the Emigrant’s Rest.
The pub boss said he will only believe that the flood relief scheme is a reality when it actually starts. “We have been disappointed too often in the past to take it as gospel that it is now about to happen,” he said.
Mr Johnson accepts it has taken time to return to something akin to normality. “We have to look forward rather than reflect on the misery of the past”.
However, he is concerned at recent heavy rainfalls and the possible consequences of further rain. “The river (Suir) is again almost at bank level and that’s a major worry,” he said. “It’s a crazy situation.”
He said most of the houses affected by the most recent floods have been unable to get insurance for their homes and have had to rely on the generosity of the Red Cross for financial help. “The Government could and should be doing a lot more to help these people,” he said.
Across the road from the Emigrant’s Rest is McDonagh Crescent, a row of terraced houses that took a merciless hammering from the October floods.
Inside are all the signs of the damage they endured but again it is the case of the householders trying to put the past behind them.
“It hasn’t been easy,” admits octogenarian Eugene Cox, who lives alone with his pet dog Rex since his wife Peggy died in 1998.
A retired army sergeant who served for 40 years in the Defence Forces, Mr Cox knows all about the floods and the damage they can, and have, caused. “I’ve really lost count of the number of times my house has been damaged,” he said.
However, what he is in no doubt about is the severity of the most recent floods and the massive damage they caused to his and his neighbours’ homes.
“Every carpet has had to be taken up and dumped, tiles have had to be ripped up and many items of furniture will never again find use after raw sewage literally flowed through the house,” he said. “I will never again lay a carpet in my home.”
He has received a contribution of €10,000 from the Red Cross who he said is doing its “level best” to help flood victims.
“I’m deeply grateful for the Red Cross, but don’t get me wrong when I say that the €10,000 they have so generously given to me still falls far short of what it will take to restore the house to what it was before the floods came,” he said.
WHAT about that Government’s promise delivered recently to the townspeople by Tom Parlon that work on the much delayed relief scheme will start early next year?
“To be honest I have heard it all before and I will only believe it when the scheme actually starts,” said Mr Cox. “They did construct a flood relief scheme in Carrick-on-Suir and it has been a great success, and hopefully they will do the same now in Clonmel.”
He admits it has been difficult to cope with the fallout from these latest floods but insists that life has to go on. “I have been coping with the loss of my wife for almost seven years and that has been a bigger challenge than anything the floods could heap on top of me,” he said.
With Christmas only just behind them, the people of Clonmel are keeping their fingers tightly crossed that the latest promise to undertake a major flood relief scheme in 2005 will be delivered.
However, given the number of times in the past that similar promises have been unfulfilled it is not difficult to appreciate why no one is prepared to believe this latest one until the scheme is actually up and running.
Then and only then will Clonmel and its beleaguered community believe that the protracted flood nightmare is finally about to end.
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