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‘Always a battle’: Clare Island locals fight to improve ‘dangerous’ pier

Inaction to improve conditions cutting at the heart of islanders’ connection to the mainland.

Noteworthy logo with the design for ISLAND NATION project featuring a lighthouse painted in stripes with a beam of light coming from it with clouds in the background.

“THE DAY YOU lose fear going into that pier is the day you’re going to have a problem.”

Roonagh – the primary mainland pier servicing Clare Island off the coast of Co Mayo – is not for the faint of heart, according to Clare Island Ferry skipper and island native Alan O’Grady.

Conditions at the pier on the mainland just outside of Louisburg can be treacherous, particularly during the winter, making it hazardous to land and berth, with many sailings postponed due to the conditions. 

“A lot of skippers will walk away when you try and get them to come and work in these piers. They walk away because it’s too much of a threat to them. If an accident ever happens, it’s on their call.”

Clare Island natives such as O’Grady have been highlighting their concerns for a long time, outlining the upgrades and repairs needed to local and national authorities.

However, much like other issues examined in our ISLAND NATION investigation, islanders’ concerns are largely going unmet.

  • This series by Noteworthy has also examined housing, fisheries and healthcare issues on islands that have gone unanswered by authorities for years. Read the full five-part series here

Metal sign for Roonagh Pier with the pier in the background Conditions at Roonagh pier have long been criticised by islanders Niall Sargent / Noteworthy Niall Sargent / Noteworthy / Noteworthy

Roadways of the islands

The ferry routes to and from our offshore islands are a vital lifeline for islanders and are essentially the equivalent of national roads on the mainland. Yet, historically services were lacking, with a low number of daily runs to the mainland and crumbling pier infrastructure. 

It certainly was one of the key items that deputy Éamon Ó Cuív wanted to tackle when he was appointed as the minister responsible for the islands in the early 2000s. 

“If you want to live on an island, the first thing that hits you every morning is how to get in and out of this place,” Ó Cuív told Noteworthy. “So the problem the islands face is mainly related to ferry services, cargo services and piers.” And Ó Cuív “acted on all three”.

A significant portion of the €100 million either spent or rubber stamped for capital works during his time in office was towards pier infrastructure projects. 

On top of this, his Department “systematically started putting in frequent good quality ferry services” for passengers and cargo, Ó Cuív told Noteworthy, and contracted ferry services were set-up for non-Gaeltacht islands such as Clare Island for the first time.

“Now suddenly, people can move in and out, so living on an island isn’t living in isolation from the bigger world out there,” he said. “It had a revolutionary effect.”

Ciara Cullen in a grey jumper sitting at a table in her kitchen Ciara Cullen is one of many Clare Island residents impacted by poor conditions at Roonagh Niall Sargent / Noteworthy Niall Sargent / Noteworthy / Noteworthy

Progress slowed down

Ciara Cullen certainly noticed the difference. Moving to the island full-time in the early 2000s after stints living there since the 1980s, Cullen runs a small farm on Clare Island, raising horses and milking sheep, alongside growing fruit and vegetables used in the farm’s own summer cafe.

When she first came to the island, there was one boat a day, four times a week from Roonagh. Services gradually improved over the years and since July 2021, there are now four passenger ferry trips a day after islanders “lobbied the department very hard”.

While from that point of view, “there is a lot that’s really improved”, Cullen said that the conditions at Roonagh faced by Alan O’Grady and other skippers are still badly impacting island connectivity. 

“Sometimes it’s incredibly dangerous,” she said, praising the skills of the boatmen in landing at the pier, especially during choppy winter conditions. However, it is not always possible to berth, with skippers often forced to divert to Achill Sound on the other side of Clew Bay. 

Despite having the utmost confidence in his crew, “safety is the most important thing” for O’Grady and he has often had to cancel sailings or divert to Achill.

“We can’t chance people’s lives,” he said, though these diversions really impact passengers. “It’s not a case of just jumping in the car and driving down the road. And it makes life very very tough for people here.”

Skipper Alan O'Grady in a blue pullover sitting in captain's seat of his boat. Clare Island skipper Alan O'Grady has long raised concerns over conditions at Roonagh Conor McKeown Conor McKeown

‘Huge impact on everybody’

“Everyone’s heart sinks when the boat goes to Achill,” said Cullen, adding significant journey times for locals, most of whom have their cars parked at Roonagh. All connections are also historically set up for that side of the bay, including links to the secondary school and Gaelic club in Louisburg.

Cullen retained text messages on her phone outlining all the days when the boat had to be diverted to Achill last winter. “I think February last year was almost like four days or five days out of the week,” she said, fearing that this will be a year-round experience as climate change takes hold.

This has a “huge impact on everybody”, she said. “I do think it has probably been the major stumbling block to a lot of development on the island.”

O’Grady would agree as the cargo schedule is set up with Roonagh in mind too. “It’s not just a case of saying ‘oh, well go down to Achill’,” when the likes of building materials need to get to the island. 

When Noteworthy visited the island in November, for example, O’Grady had 150 tonnes of gravel waiting at Roonagh to get to the island for a building job, leaving the project “at a standstill”. 

“I could have been pulling it into the island if we had the facilities. I’d have been at that all day if we had proper slipways. It delays everything for the people building the house.

“Our biggest problem is Roonagh. That’s our main pier and it’s an absolute disgrace.”

Large mound of gravel on a pier Gravel piled at Roonagh Pier waiting to be tarnsported to Clare Island Niall Sargent / Noteworthy Niall Sargent / Noteworthy / Noteworthy

Progress – but slowly

Issues with the pier are now reaching the highest levels of power. In June 2021, the Minister for responsibility for the islands, Heather Humphreys, recognised that “there is no doubt that it needs work”, setting aside €139,000 for refurbishment work to resurface the pier and build a concrete wall.

Large-scale redevelopment, she said, is a matter for the local authority, however, with the Department confirming to our team that it has allocated €45,000 to Mayo County Council to prepare a strategic development plan for the pier. 

The Department held a meeting with the Council in December 2022 to discuss the matter, it said, and “understands that Mayo County Council held consultation meetings with the islands communities in summer 2022 and is currently drafting the plan”.

Mayo County Council did not respond to several requests for comment. The Council is also in the process of creating a plan to upgrade the harbour facilities on Clare Island itself, another bugbear for O’Grady and other vessel owners. 

A naval engineer recently visited the island as part of work to develop options to upgrade the pier. For O’Grady and other vessel owners we spoke with, the solutions have been clear for a long-time – the pier needs to be extended, shelter provided for all weather conditions and a breakwater installed to protect against tides, currents and waves.

At the moment, if there is a swell forecast, all the heavy boats have to clear out of the bay for the night “which in this day and age is pretty grim”, said O’Grady.

This means a long evening ahead for O’Grady, with a minimum 40-minute journey to Achill to tie up, and then another journey back home, before returning again the following day to collect the boat and start all over again. 

Despite the promises of change coming, O’Grady and other Clare Island residents who spoke with us see little positive news on the horizon. “It’s always going to be a battle for us,” he said. 

“We’ve tried our damnedest with the Department and the Council. We’re left many years later sitting on the bench and nothing has been done.”

Island Nation

INVESTIGATING ISLAND DEPOPULATION - FULL SERIES OUT NOW

Have a listen to The Explainer x Noteworthy podcast on our findings 

Design for ISLAND NATION project featuring a lighthouse painted in stripes.

By Niall Sargent of Noteworthy

This article was developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu as part of a cross-border project with Jamie Mann for The Ferret in Scotland and Giacomo Zandonini for IrpiMedia in Italy.

Please support our work by submitting an idea, helping to fund a project or setting up a monthly contribution to our investigative fund HERE>>

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    Mute Casper
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:07 PM

    Seven years what a joke

    231
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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:14 PM

    @Casper: Can only sentence what the max was at the time of the offence, in the 70′s.

    Legislation allows for bigger sentences now.

    47
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    Mute Casper
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:19 PM

    @Matt Connolly: well if that’s the case the law needs to be changed to allow for bigger sentences, it don’t matter what decade it was or is it still has the same impact on its victims and society as a whole.

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    Mute the phantom
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:25 PM

    @Casper: agreed. It must be possible to classify violent rapists (those proven to ever have offended) as on-going dangers to society and jail them at the discretion of the minister for justice.
    Could even apply to people who committed such acts abroad. Not a bad way to keep out people who have done so in other countries too.

    22
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    Mute John O'Neill
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:38 PM

    @Casper: it is my understanding that the judge made this 7 year sentence run consecutively to the 7 year and 10 months sentence he is already serving which is right and proper

    21
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    Mute Casper
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:44 PM

    @John O’Neill: well that’s good to know

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    Mute Dean Moriarity
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:34 PM

    Parents should be very wary of letting their kids play GAA. Far too much of this going on under the county banner.

    71
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    Mute Casper
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:41 PM

    @Dean Moriarity: don’t be silly you can’t paint every one with the one brush, lots of good people give of their time to these clubs day in and day out and well done to their commitment, but clubs do have a duty of care to make sure that volunteers are vetted and provided training in child protection

    97
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    Mute Cultural Marxist
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:53 PM

    @Casper: That’s what they used to say about the Catholic Church until the full extent of the paedophilia and cover up was revealed. The GAA is run along the same lines, unquestioning loyalty to the parish coach who has access to children via a position of trust. This is only the tip of the iceberg in the GAA.

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    Mute Casper
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:59 PM

    @Cultural Marxist: well if that’s true I would assume its historical, I don’t believe that would be the case in this day and age, and I hope that people keep coming forward and put their perpetrators behind bars where they belong

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    Mute Cultural Marxist
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    Nov 10th 2017, 6:08 PM

    @Casper: Agreed.

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    Mute Thomas Blackcat
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    Nov 10th 2017, 6:15 PM

    @Cultural Marxist: Not happening now? That’s what the RCC and GAA swore then….and it’s still happening. People are both blind and stupid…..

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    Mute Casper
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    Nov 10th 2017, 6:35 PM

    @Thomas Blackcat: sounds like you have some information or evidence of serious crimes if you do you better take it to the Garda, and if you don’t stop blowing smoke out of your arse

    31
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    Mute Ray Muller
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    Nov 10th 2017, 7:58 PM

    @Cultural Marxist:
    Perverts will infiltrate any organisation that will provide cover for their despicable criminal acts. Being a cultural Marxist perhaps you are aware of Bella Dodd?
    “In the late 1920′s and 1930′s, directives were sent from Moscow to all Communist Party organizations. In order to destroy the Catholic Church from within, party members were to be planted in seminaries and within diocesan organizations,” Dodd stated according to the affidavit.She also stated in her book “school of darkness” that “The homosexual and heretical pollution of the priesthood was deliberate and long in the making” and that she herself under orders placed over 1100 deviants into the church to destroy it from within?

    11
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    Mute Cultural Marxist
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    Nov 10th 2017, 8:32 PM

    @Ray Muller: Calling gay people perverts and deviant, you must be a Catholic yourself. When you graduate from primary school you may also learn that there is no link between sexual orientation and paedophilia, that is why your priests molested young girls as well as boys.

    10
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    Mute Ray Muller
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    Nov 10th 2017, 9:32 PM

    @Cultural Marxist:
    Of course there isn’t, but there is a historically connection with pederastry, or man and boy, which is what apparently occurred in this case. Its also a tag peculiar that the world leading “gay” rights group, ILGA, reportedly harboured no less that 3 of these dangerous sicko groups in their ranks for years. They even had UN funding removed because of it!
    Just saying it as it is.

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    Mute Ray Muller
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    Nov 10th 2017, 9:40 PM

    @Cultural Marxist: Of course there isn’t, but there is a historical connection, Romans and Greeks with pederastry, or man and boy depravity, which is what apparently what transpired in this case.
    Its also a tag peculiar that the world’s leading “gay” rights group, ILGA, reportedly harboured no less that 3 of these dangerous sicko groups in their ranks for years. They even had UN funding removed because of it!
    Just saying it as it is. The truth shouldn’t offend anyone?

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    Mute Sinead Hanley
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    Nov 10th 2017, 10:10 PM

    @Casper: My young fella plays hurling and as far as i am aware, there is no garda vetting (at our local club anyway). I often help out at things and no one has ever asked me to get garda vetted. The local parish council asked me to do some readings at the church regularly. And i had to be garda vetted. Its extremely strict at the church and so it should be with their disastrous record. So i do feel there is a risk at my GAA club that i didnt consider. Though i do accompany my son to ALL matches/training.

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    Mute Jumperoo
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    Nov 10th 2017, 11:25 PM

    @Sinead Hanley: Garda vetting is a requirement for all coaches and others involved with underage GAA teams, and has been for years. I don’t know to what extent you help out yourself, but maybe not to that degree? Would find it unlikely that your club doesn’t comply at all. Either way, it would probably be better for you to ask a club official than to throw such probably unfounded accusations around online.

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    Mute Sinead Hanley
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    Nov 11th 2017, 1:11 AM

    @Jumperoo: The fact is that even though my club are probably complying (as you say) with garda vetting etc, i as a parent have not been made aware of it. My son is with his club for 3 years since he was 4 and i have never heard a word about child “safety” except for the cul camps. I am not suggesting any problems with child safety but i think its important that the GAA highlight their stance from now on. I was taken aback when i read this article cos i hasnt considered it. Though i always accompany my child. There is a framed poster in our church for safety officers/people for children if u are concerned. Its not in our gaa club.

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    Mute Gearoidín Ní Fhiách
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    Nov 11th 2017, 3:05 AM

    @Sinead Hanley: Sinead, there is a legal requirement on every GAA club to have every coach, trainer or manager Garda Vetted. They are also obliged to undertake a Child a Protection course of which this subject matter is the primary focus. They must also undertake various coaching courses, but the first, the Garda Vetting is essential. It would not be possible to have every single person who turns up at a pitch checked, many are parents like yourself etc. Think about it. If your child is at a game and you’ve arranged another parent to take them home, and something sinister were to occur, there is nothing the GAA club could do to prevent that, if you follow. But a good club will take all and any precautions to ensure those with the closet contact yo kids, are safe. That said, these predators will always find a way. Can’t keep kids locked away, just in case.

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    Mute MacEochagain
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    Nov 10th 2017, 6:13 PM

    More silence from Croke Park. They need to come out and reassure people things are done properly these days…. they had more to say about a certain testimonial dinner last week!

    #headinthesand

    35
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    Mute Sean @114
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    Nov 10th 2017, 7:39 PM

    @MacEochagain: this is happening everywhere. The aggressive atheists will tell you that the abusers all have white collars. Anywhere where adults are exposed to kids this can happen. All coaches are Garda vetted but this means little unless you have a record. I’m not sure what any organisation can say unless it’s a token apology. This is a societal issue.

    11
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    Mute Gavin Huban
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    Nov 10th 2017, 7:47 PM

    @Sean @114: societal problem caused by years of religious repression…..

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    Mute Cultural Marxist
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    Nov 10th 2017, 8:34 PM

    @Sean @114: What’s an ‘aggressive atheist’? Is it someone who shouts at nothing?

    6
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    Mute MacEochagain
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    Nov 10th 2017, 9:23 PM

    @Cultural Marxist: it’s a first cousin of a cultural Marxist.. ..

    4
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    Mute Sean @114
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    Nov 11th 2017, 12:52 AM

    @Gavin Huban: years of sexual repression maybe.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:41 PM

    That sentence is a joke! Three times that sentence would be a joke. Turns my stomach.

    34
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    Mute Paul O Riordan
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    Nov 10th 2017, 5:59 PM

    Appalling behavior from someone in a position of trust. His children are probably victims also. No winners

    16
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Nov 10th 2017, 6:03 PM

    Its time sentences were changed, instead of protecting these people.

    6
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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Nov 10th 2017, 8:41 PM

    A pompous self denying paedophile ,No remorse ,no remission ,

    14
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    Mute Freecakes
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    Nov 10th 2017, 10:59 PM

    The Journal, I often wonder why you even bother with images. Why not show a photo of this s*umbag – we already have his name – so we know what he looks like when he gets parole in a few years.

    1
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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Nov 10th 2017, 11:57 PM

    @Freecakes: to protect his victims?

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