Call to Enda Kenny ahead of floods as ‘livelihoods at stake’ in Athlone

Paddy Grehan and Paul Fleming manned the large diesel-powered water pump at a newly built dam beside The Park estate. “We’re up all night,” Paul said. “If that pump breaks down, we are gone,” he said.

Paul lives in one of the estate’s 12 houses with his wife Irene and daughters Lucy, 6, Sally, 5, and Rose, 4. The estate was built in the 1970s but only flooded for the first time in 2009. Three of the houses are rented and the rest are owner occupied.

There is a strong sense of community in the small cul-de-sac, where residents were out on the street chatting, drinking tea, and checking on their flood defences.