Campaigners win decade-long fight for tower repairs

Repair work on a historic 600-year-old West Cork tower is finally set to begin after a determined campaign by locals which has lasted for more than a decade.

Residents of the village of Innishannon have been lobbying for years to have crucial work carried out on St Mary’s Tower, which was damaged by lightning in 2000 before partially collap-sing seven years later.

The Friends of Innishannon committee, which was set up to lobby for the repair of the tower — one wall of which cracked after being struck by lightning — has been told work is set to start in November.