It’s a little with a month short of two years since there was a public outcry here in Castleisland over the flooding of Kilbanivane Cemetery.
In January 2014 there were men bailing water out of a freshly dug grave as the hearse was pulling up outside the gate of the graveyard.
Promises were made then that the cause of the problem would be tackled and various sources were identified as possible flood causing flashpoints.
That may well be so. None of the solutions are now holding water. The failure of the authorities in this regard is glaringly obvious today as the graves in Kilbanivane lie under water yet again. This, almost two full years after minds were exercised and focused and the problems identified.
I’ve gone back up there on a number of occasions during heavy rain falls over the past couple of years and was glad to find that all was well. However, the photographs here from this afternoon clearly show that things are anything but well.
Maher’s – or the upper side of the two-part cemetery, has been particularly vulnerable to flooding over recent years.
It’s a good 20 years ago now that a local family, on finding the grave dug for their mother half full of water, put her coffin back in the hearse and made other arrangements. So it isn’t today or yesterday these problems have arisen.
The odd thing is that locals talk, at times like this, of a soak-away across the road from the cemetery that used to take excess water up to recent years.
It has also been suggested that the flooding here is because of the blocking over the years of an ancient watercourse. And that the water gathering in the Kilbanivane / College Road area at times like this should be flowing on down to Limerick Road and through Minnie Hughes’ field and eventually into the Maine.
There was some work done on the nearby Glounsharoon River since the bad flooding of January 2014 at Kilbanivane. Now it’s back to the drawing board.
This situation is, naturally, very upsetting for people with loved ones buried there. Solutions to the long running problems there are surely within the grasp of the minds charged with such responsibility.
