Fraying wires puts island cable car out of action

IRELAND’S only cable car will be out of action for several weeks after it was discovered that its suspension cables were fraying.

The problem was discovered when Cork County Council fitters took down the 40-year-old cable car to replace it with a new one.

The local authority had spent €30,000 on a new cable car to replace the one which has serviced Dursey Island since 1969.

Ted Murphy, the council’s senior executive engineer, said it had been planned to install the cable car last week.

“Whilst our fitters were removing the old car and the gear attached to the track ropes, they discovered some fraying on the outer strands of the suspension cable at the station. Unfortunately this means that the two track ropes must be replaced,” Mr Murphy said.

He said the steel ropes, which are each 400 metres long, will have to be specially manufactured in England.

“That will take some weeks and in the meantime the cable car will be out of action,” Mr Murphy said.

As a result the inhabitants will have to use a boat to get on and off Dursey Island, which lies off the Beara Peninsula.

The cable car was officially opened when Jack Lynch was Taoiseach and was installed to provide the island’s population with an alternative to the sometimes treacherous boat crossings of the channel, which has extremely dangerous currents.

In the 1800s there were hundreds of people living on the island, but the population has dwindled to less than 10.

However, there are a number of holiday homes on Dursey, which is 6.5km long and 1.5km wide, and visitors swell the population at weekends and during the summer.

It’s not just used by those with two legs.

Islanders have always insisted that the cable car be available to transport animals and since the service began many cattle and sheep have crossed over, dangling 219 metres over Dursey Sound.

The new cable car, which is more modern and robust, was built by a firm in Limerick.However, there was no company in this country capable of galvanising such a large object, and it had to be sent to England for completion.

The car arrived back in Ireland a few weeks ago, but the county council had to wait for a spell of good weather to install it.

The cable car operates 365 days a year by local man Paddy Sheehan.

However, the county council has trained up other people to operate the system when he’s on holidays.