Nothing concrete has been done on the footpath system on Castleisland’s Limerick Road since the mid 1960s.
Not until last week- that is. But there’s so much more to do. And what’s left to do is glaring and screaming for attention and it’s downright dangerous.
Last week’s work undertook to replace a 30 or so yard length of wide path at the turn-off from Main Street to Limerick Road at Hartnett’s Corner.
Old Making Way for New
All the council’s heavy machinery, the stop/go signs and men attached and the red barriers moved into place.
The rat-a-tat-tat of the rock-breaker ushered out the old and made way for the new.
In fact, all the new concrete was poured within the confines of the path outside Hartnett’s fine and historic old building.
Written in Stone-hard Concrete
There’s a signature on the path which was laid further up Limerick Road at the town side of the entrance to the former Nelligan’s Bakery all those years ago.
Its historic status is now threatening to slide its way into archaeology and it’s there since the mid 1960s.
The reason I remember it is that it was a topic of a schoolboy debate one day above at ‘The Masters’ and Mikey Joe Cronin was at the centre of the circle.
MJC Near Nelligan’s
His forefinger inscribed ‘MJC’ – he didn’t bother with punctuation – can be seen on the piece of pathway mentioned.
God be with our innocence but we thought he was one of the most daring the school had ever produced.
And he told us that one of the workmen saw him at it but he finished it before getting clean away.
Nothing Concrete Since
That, apart from patches covering water pipes and sewage connections, was the last time anything concrete and linear happened on the footpaths on Limerick Road.
Last week’s work was the result of a councillor’s allocation from Cllr. Bobby O’Connell.
More will be urgently needed if parts of the stretch from Hartnett’s gate to the entrance to Desmonds Avenue are to be brought up to a level that would comply with modern day health and safety concerns and standards.
The fact that students from the various schools in town use this path on a regular basis on their way to and from the Castleisland Desmonds GAA Club grounds should add to that sense of urgency.
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