Sea change required to meet rising tide of disquiet over coastal erosion

I DON’T like to mention it in polite company, but my foundations are a bit exposed. The recent storm lashed at Portrane and made my Martello Tower spring leaks in more places than you could imagine. Eight buckets were deployed at the height of it, and we’re now in the check/replace/repaint phase.

It’s on the outside, however, that we’re indecently exposed. Huge waves lashed over the garden walls onto the hydrangeas. Now, hydrangeas, in my experience, are the cockroaches of the horticultural world. Nothing can kill them.

What’s worrying is that, to get to the hydrangeas, the sea water didn’t just have to climb the walls. In front of the walls, it was faced with a deep soil bank, out of which the storm-wave took lumps. Lumps? Massive chunks.