Update on Harbour Works and Repairs – Cape Clear Island

On Monday 13 January  Cormac O’Donoghue and Tomás Mac Gearailt, Dept. Marine Engineers visited the Island to ascertain for themselves the level of damage caused by the recent great storm and to decide on priorities for remedial works. During their visit they were met by a representative of the Cailin Óir who was assured that urgent repair works will be undertaken on the damaged boom system in the coming weeks. This is absolutely essential because currently, given the lack of protection of the Inner Dock there would be no option but to remove the ferry and presumably the other vessels normally kept here to the mainland in the event of another severe forecast. These emergency works should see us safely through until the spring. Coincidentally, the Island was also visited by a TG4 news crew the same day and featured on various news reports on TG4 and RTE the same evening. These included the Nuacht at 5pm, Nuacht on TG3 at 7pm and the main 9pm News on RTE. For anyone interested these can be accessed on the TV players.

During the visit we notice further photographic evidence, for those familiar with the Island, of the severity of the great storm of the previous week. We show a photo of the boom which is normally placed at the very bottom when in use. We understand that the booms are over 110 years old and the severe wear and tear shown here almost all occurred during last Monday’s storm. Apart from the damage shown, the underside of the boom is also extremely chafed and there is visible but lesser damage to the other booms. All this damage occurred in a few hours only.

Regrettably it has transpired that the damage to the new slip under construction is in fact substantial and that significant sections will need to be redone. The Dept Marine Representatives held various discussions with others during their visit and its seems likely that various significant changes and improvements will take place in the Harbour area assuming that the required funding is made available by Central Government. We hope that they will be successful in this regard and that we can see some of these necessary improvement’s taking place sooner rather than later.