Last-gasp dash to the ball as cable car strands mayor

The mayor of Cork County was almost left stranded on an island off Cork at the weekend after getting caught up in a last-minute problem with its cable car summer schedule.

Dursey islanders off West Cork said the scheduling debacle forced them to cancel events as part of the West Cork Islands Festival, and they called last night for the access issues to be resolved immediately.

Councillor Alan Coleman said he had to catch a boat from Dursey back to the mainland to ensure he made it to his own fundraising gala ball on time that evening, and said he will raise the island’s access issue with senior county council management today.

“Given that Dursey is one of only 15 signature points on the Wild Atlantic Way, and one of only three in Cork, it’s important that we get things right in terms of the cable car opening hours,” he said.

Dursey is linked to the mainland by Ireland’s only cable car, which is owned and managed by Cork County Council. It operates its winter schedule from 9am to 10.30am, 2.30pm to 5pm, and 7pm and 8pm.

On Friday, the council announced on its website that the cable car summer schedule, 9am to 8pm Monday to Sunday, was in effect until September 27.

However, council engineers emailed public representatives later that evening to say that, due to “unforeseen circumstances”, the summer schedule would not be starting as planned.

Dursey islanders & #Cork county mayor are furious over a cable car cock-up. See 2morow's Examiner Pic .@WestCorkPhoto pic.twitter.com/4OuLzyUIhW

— Eoin English (@EoinBearla) June 14, 2015

Locals said almost 100 potential visitors to Dursey were turned away and that some of their festival events had to be cancelled.

Dursey Island resident Martin Sheehan described it as a disaster for the island.

“Do they want to promote the periphery? Do they want to promote tourism? Do they want to help sustain the islands?” said Mr Sheehan.

“Or do they want to draw a line west from Ballincollig and let us all go?

“There is a total lack of interest all the way to the top. Somebody has to take responsibility for this.”

He said almost 10,000 people, €8 for adults, €4 for children, paid to use the cable car last year — an almost two-fold increase on the previous year.

Last week, President Michael D Higgins told Cape Clear residents during an official visit the State must continue to support Ireland’s island communities.