Bypass Ireland: Ballyvourney and Ballymakeera have mixed feelings about the N22

Some locals fear the N22 bypass will draw passing trade from the Cork villages — but others tell Neil Michael they expect it will boost business by taking traffic congestion off their streets

Micheál Creedon, who runs the Abbey Hotel in Ballymakeera, is one of the people in two minds about the impending bypass: '[W]e rely a lot on passing trade, particularly during the summer. That passing trade is now obviously going to be gone.'  Picture: Neil Michael

Creeping towards Baile Mhic Íre Co Cork is a road that most residents want and some fear — but about which others are in two minds. 

It is the much talked-about new €280m N22 Baile Bhúirne to Macroom dual carriageway, a large section of which opened last December.

Currently about 3km away from Baile Mhic Íre (Ballymakeera), the work is advancing, with convoys of trucks busily carting away tonnes of rubble as the project edges slowly towards the small Gaeltacht village.

Waiting with some trepidation is Micheál Creedon.

He is the owner of The Abbey Hotel, which recently hosted an event as part of a global gathering of Gobnaits — people named after the mediaeval Irish saint who hailed from the Baile Bhúirne area.

Mr Creedon, and a number of other business owners in the area, is in the two minds camp.

“I suppose from a business point of view, I would be worried,” he said.

“If you compare us to Macroom, this is a village, Macroom is a town. In relation to Macroom, you have got banks, you have got solicitors, you have got doctors, you have the mart. You’ve a reason to go to Macroom.

“Baile Mhic Ire is a village and we don’t have those facilities. We still have shops, we still have the chemist, the filling station and we have obviously also ourselves a hotel and the Mills Restaurant restaurant back the road.

So it’s a different situation and we rely a lot on passing trade, particularly during the summer. That passing trade is now obviously going to be gone.

Construction of the new road began in 2020 and it is due to be completed by the first quarter of 2024.

The bypass comprises a 22km dual carriageway that begins west of Baile Bhúirne, passing north of Macroom and re-joins the existing N22 south of Macroom.

The scheme is divided into three sections for the construction phase, with the first section focused on a bypass of Baile Bhúirne and Baile Mhic Íre, running from Slievereagh to Coolnacaheragh.

Section two involves work on the middle section from Coolnacaheragh to Carrigaphooca, and section three, the bypass of Macroom, runs from Carrigaphooca to Coolcour, at the eastern side of town.

Significant progress on the Coolcour and Carrigaphooca section allowed for the official opening of the Macroom bypass just ahead of Christmas.

Monica O’Leary, who works in O Luasas food store in Baile Mhic Íre’s and post office for her aunt Siobhan Lucey, can see how a bypass will affect passing trade.

But she also believes it could bring new opportunities.

She said: “We have heavy haulage companies coming through all the time. There’ll be a lot of lorries coming through, so we’re the main main road and everything travels through here.

Monica O'Leary says of the bypass: '[T]here might be more parking and everything like what you’ve seen in Macroom, where it is now so much easier to find a parking space.' Picture: Neil Michael.

“I suppose passing trade would be a big thing but then maybe more locals might come into the village because they might not be delayed as much as they might be [now].

“And there might be more parking and everything like what you’ve seen in Macroom, where it is now so much easier to find a parking space.

“We’re a thriving community, as we’re in the Gaeltacht. We have a lot of companies, even back the road, around here so maybe the bypass would make it easier for them to get deliveries.”

But, while the people of Macroom may well have good reason to celebrate their newfound bypass-inspired happiness, it’s having a knock on effect on Baile Mhic Íre.

A truck passing through the Gaeltacht village of Ballymakeera, Ballyvourney, Co Cork. Picture: Neil Michael

Traffic appears to have increased, so there is now an even more urgent wish for the bypass to arrive in Baile Mhic Íre.

Indeed, as small as the village appears to be, it is actually — at times — harder to cross the main street in Baile Mhic Íre than it is in Macroom.

Co-Op Superstore Baile Mhic Íre manager Eileen Kelleher said: “Crossing the road is not exactly the easiest of things to do.

“We actually see there is more traffic now since Macroom has been bypassed.

“Not only has traffic increased, but they’re coming faster because they’re bypassing Macroom and now the village has become the new gridlocked part of the main route from Killarney to Macroom,” she said. 

Co-Op Superstore store manager Eileen Kelleher says Ballymakeera ‘would become a stop-off point’, after it is bypassed. Picture: Neil Michael

Ms Kelleher would be one of the fans of a bypass.

“I suppose no one would ever refuse a bypass," she says. 

“It will always benefit a village or a town because you know that you’re not going to be stuck in traffic behind lorries, behind buses, or anything like that, so you will come to do your business. Especially here in our store, we deal with farmers and this is an agri store so they’re always in a hurry.

“They’re always hurrying, especially at this time of year, so they would benefit from not being delayed in traffic.”

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Asked if she and others in business would be worried if delays getting to the village due to increased traffic might encourage potential customers to slip off to another town or village, Ms Kelleher said: “There aren’t many more places to slip off to because you’re on the main Killarney to Macroom road route.

“You haven’t many more places to slip off to. We depend here a lot on the passing trade as well as our own local trade.

“But it’s just if you’re coming from Macroom, and you’re passing trade, and you’re sitting in a car with half an hour, you’re just going to keep going.

The N22 bypass 'couldn’t happen soon enough,' says former truck driver Paddy Murphy, photographed in Ó Scanaill’s Bar in Ballymakeera, Ballyvourney, Co Cork. Picture: Neil Michael

“You’re not going to stop off, you’re just going to stay going, you are going to want to come home. But if you have to bypass, you will be more inclined to stop,” she said.

“You will take a break and everywhere benefits, not just the co-op — but other shops, the cafes, the restaurants, everything would be different because it would become a stop-off point rather than a passing-through point.”

Former lorry driver, Paddy Murray was enjoying a quiet drink in the village’s Ó Scanaill’s Bar when asked about the prospect of a by-pass of the village.

A man of few words, he simply said: “It just couldn’t happen soon enough.”