Bantry cleans up after Barra but locals fear inevitable floods to come

Some 23 premises were flooded in the town last week after gale force winds gusted to more than 130km/h

Bantry in West Cork was flooded for the fourth time in some 18 months this week. Picture: Anne Marie Cronin Photography

Seaweed was still strewn across the streets, tangled around lampposts and caught in decking along Bantry’s harbour front days after Storm Barra hit last week.

“Bantry is the most flooded town in Ireland,” Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan told the Dáil after the seaside town flooded for the fourth time in some 18 months this week.

“It’s expected now that every time there’s a southerly wind and a high tide, Bantry will be flooded,” he said.

Social democrat TD Holly Cairns also raised the town’s flooding problem in the Dáil and said that the flood relief scheme was "taking too long.”

Some 23 premises were flooded in the town this week as Storm Barra made landfall just before high tide on Tuesday morning and gale force winds gusted to more than 130km/h. But early warning and efforts by Cork County Council and the fire brigade helped to limit the damage somewhat this time.

Jennifer Evans cleaning up after Storm Barra at M. Evans corner shop in Bantry, West Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

Surging water lifted tarmac off the roads and pushed filthy water up through the drains into many businesses during the last major flash flood in August 2020.

Water pushed right through the tarmac on New St, leaving gaping holes in the road which runs above a major culvert in the town.

Minister for the Office of Public Works Patrick O’Donovan and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath visited the town after the storm, empathising with distraught locals, their suits and shiny shoes jarring slightly with the dirty carnage left by the flood.

Although a €6.7m flood relief scheme was then announced for Bantry and a tender process began, a design team has not yet been appointed.

Christopher O’Sullivan said that he believes that Cork County Council has selected a design team and the OPW needs to appoint that team immediately.

The OPW told the Irish Examiner that “engineering and environmental consultants are expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.” 

“Once consultants are appointed to progress the Flood Relief Scheme for Bantry, consultation with statutory and non-statutory bodies, as well as the public, will take place at the appropriate stages to ensure that all parties have the opportunity to input into the development of a viable scheme.  

"In the meantime, Cork County Council has engaged a contractor to treat some of the invasive species in preparation for a flood relief scheme for the town,” a statement from the OPW said.

Bantry's flood relief scheme is to be funded from the €1.3bn ringfenced for flood risk management in the National Development Plan to 2030, they said.

Fallen trees at the near the entrance to Bantry House in West Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

But little discernible progress has been made and residents and business owners say that the process is taking far too long.

Bantry is surrounded by water. The harbour laps at one end and from the other, two rivers flow down into town, meeting in a culvert below New Street and flowing under the square into the harbour. But when the rivers are swollen by rain and high tide is met by wind pushing the tide up towards the town, that body of water has nowhere to go but up into the streets and buildings in Bantry.

While neighbouring Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Bandon have had flood defences built there, Bantry has been left behind.

Danielle Delaney, Chair of the Bantry Business Association and manager at The Brick Oven restaurant in the town, said that a flood defence scheme is desperately needed.

“Before there was a flood every few years. But now it’s happening every few months," she said.

“They’ve been talking about it for 4-5 years but there has still been no public consultation. It’s still only at pre-planning stage. If they wait another five years, there will be another 20 floods. Every time the tide is high, people will be unable to sleep, just waiting for the water to come.

“It’s hard for the businesses but it’s also hard for the fire service, for the County Council, for the engineers. They’re out from 3am waiting for the waters to come in so they can try to fight it. I’ve seen the chief engineer in wellies more often than shoes here.

“Even when some flood defences are piled up by the harbour walls or outside doors, the water is coming up the drains and in through the back of businesses."

While The Brick Oven, a popular restaurant in the town, often escapes flooding, their immediate neighbours almost always flood.

Centimetres can mean the difference between your business flooding or not and slight but visible undulations in the harbour front road can condemn or protect the properties on them.

Plans are underway to upgrade the culvert that runs under New Street and that is likely to be phase one in building up Bantry’s flood resilience.

And the town needs it.

Danielle Delaney, Chairperson of Bantry Business Association and manager of the Brick Oven in Bantry. Picture: Anne Marie Cronin Photography

Ms Delaney said that the town is being hit by more frequent and more voracious storms and flash floods while the sea level is also rising.

“The culverts are not big enough for the town,” she said.

“The storms are more severe now and the sea levels are rising.” 

A resilience and strong community spirit is palpable in the town. New businesses have opened since Covid and plans are underway for more.

But flooding, on top of the ravages of Covid, are stymying growth.

One business has not reopened since a major flash flood hit the town in August 2020. And more may lose the will to open their doors unless something is done to control the water levels, some locals worry.

“No one in lower town has flood insurance. We’re in a tidal flood zone so we can’t be insured,” Ms Delaney said.

“Every time it floods we lose money. It costs in terms of extra staff to clean, damaged flooring, furniture, stock and equipment to be replaced, losing trade while the business is closed for cleaning.

People have been quite resilient with flooding but what business wants to open when water could flood in the door?

Eddie Wiseman of Wiseman’s Clothing and Footwear shop on Main Street said that until proper flood relief is in place, Bantry will continue to flood.

He said that a multi-pronged approach was needed to divert water on one side from the swollen rivers up in the hills before they reach town and to tackle the rising tide from the other. Dredging a section of the inner harbour with a shut-off to take excess water and erecting a tidal barrier have been suggested to divert water from populated areas. 

“It’s a nightmare for businesses that are impacted. But there are solutions,” Mr Wiseman said.

“In the UK, they use flood traps where water is diverted into pits with lots of trees and vegetation that soaks excess water more slowly which can prevent flooding. Planning for houses was allowed on sights that once provided natural drainage and those natural soakaways were not replaced. We need to replace those soakaways with flood traps up off the rivers.

“The culvert is another problem." 

But erecting large walls at the bottom of the town is not a solution, he said.

Diarmuid Murphy the Fish Kitchen, and former chairman of Bantry Business Association, Picture: Anne Marie Cronin Photography

In the last major flood in August 2020, floodwater rose some 22 inches inside his shop. Damage cost some €15,000 without even replacing the floors. Those floods cost the town hundreds of thousands of euros, he said.

The one positive of the repeated floods is that it has brought the community together, with neighbours reaching out to help neighbours, he said.

“But we can’t have this repeated disruption when there are solutions. It’s an inconvenience and a stress.” 

Diarmaid Murphy of The Fish Kitchen in Bantry and former chair of the Bantry Business Association also said that progress on the flood defence schemes was “too slow.” There were once docking rights for boats outside his premises on New St before the river that runs under New St was covered over by a road.

"We need a proper flood defence," he said.

Flooding here is not a new phenomenon, it’s just got worse than it used to be. The result is people are suffering. Last year we got a bad wallop in the summer.

“We've been promised funding by Patrick O'Donovan and Michael McGrath, they were here the day after the floods last year. The money is ringfenced but you have a multiagency approach and things are too slow.

"The culverts are to be replaced next year. They're not fit for purpose anymore. There are more people in town, less soakage as fields have been replaced with housing estates, maintenance may be difficult as well as they’re so old.

“We've been waiting a long time. We’re next in line but they’d want to speed it up. 

"A lot of places here get hit regularly and you can only survive that for so long."