Flood waters cause mental anguish
“I have it on eighteen hours a day but it won’t be long before it’ll have to be left on non-stop,” Padraig Beattie explained as he maneuvered a water pipe attached to the pump placed outside his home by Roscommon County Council.
Padraig lives with his mother, Mary, in the two-storey family home close to Lough Funshinagh near Rahara in south Roscommon.
The rising water levels from the turlough have now entered their front garden and if it wasn’t for the timely intervention of the local authority and local residents, the Beattie’s house would already be submerged.
Padraig’s brother, Cathal, lives very close by but if the water swallows up the local road he’ll face a 15-mile detour to visit his mother and brother.
“The levels only dropped by three foot last summer – and that was after we had a drought!
“The O’Mearas have already had to be relocated and there is another house along with my mother’s under threat. Four local roads have also been affected and one of them is impassable,” he said.
Anxiety rises with the water levels in this part of County Roscommon. This year more than most however, as the lake hits an all-time high with no sign of abating.
The Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council, Laurence Fallon, also happens to live near by.
“I’m like a broken record at this stage but the bottom line is that we have gone beyond talking and the Government needs to move in and find a solution,” Cllr. Fallon says.
“There’s only one way to describe the lake now – it’s like a basin on top of a table and we just can’t get the water out.
“If this was Cork City or any other place like that the solution would have been found like ago.
“There is only one solution”, he says for the umpteenth time, “and that’s an overflow pipe.
“It’s critical that we don’t leave people waiting to be flushed out of their homes. The mental anguish here is incredible”.
The family living next door to Padraig and Mary are also called Beattie but are no relations.
A couple in their 80s, Cllr. Fallon says their home is also under threat and they face further isolation should the local road disappear like much like the lake used to.
It’s not just homes that are currently under threat either. Padraig Beattie is facing into a tough lambing season should his recently built shed be submerged in the coming weeks.
“I only got a €40,000 grant late last year for the shed so I’ve just put sheep into it. I have 150 ewes to lamb this spring but I don’t know if the shed will be there this time next year,” he said.
Liam Kenny is another local farmer and he is currently embroiled in a battle to protect his own sheep from the encroaching lake.
“If it rises another foot or two it will enter the shed. The water is about two feet up the back wall of the shed at the moment and that could lead to structural damage. It’s looking like I’ll have to lamb out in the field this year if it continues,” he said.
When he’s not rearing sheep, Liam is a psychiatric nurse in Mullingar, and the psychological impact of the annual floods is something he and other residents are acutely aware of.
“The main concerns are with people whose dwelling house is under threat. There’s a higher threat level this year and an area we were all proud of in terms of a wildlife habitat is gone. It has been extremely stressful for people.
“I was scrolling the Internet recently and I came across the conservation guidelines for the Office of Public Works and other bodies. It’s very interesting how much they’ve failed here,” he said.
As for Padraig and his mother Mary, the psychological effects of the flooding are exacerbated on a daily basis by the current scene at their front door.
Padraig says a good night’s sleep can be hard to come by as the waters inch ever closer.
“I’ll soon be checking that pump every night,” he says.
“There are some mornings when it’s just hard to get up out of the bed because you don’t know what to expect.
“I know they’ll eventually have to act but we need something done right now”.
