World of Politics with Harry McGee

I was out in North Connemara last weekend for a walk commemorating a good friend who had died. It was a lovely day, and on the way back, I decided to divert across from Maigh Cuilinn to An Spidéal to go for a quick dip before going into town.

It was mid-afternoon. On the way back into the city, the traffic slowed to a crawl after Bearna.

I thought it might have to do with cars coming in and out of Silver Strand. But it wasn’t. It was two people, a man and a woman both cycling in towards Knocknacarra. The carriageway wasn’t wide enough to allow cars to pass.

It happened again in Kingston, where there was a man cycling with his young daughter, who was in a child’s seat on the back carrier. A line of cars trailed behind him. It wasn’t his fault; it wasn’t the drivers’ fault. The roads had been designed for another era.

We had a house out in Indreabhán when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. I remember being told that that road – the Galway road to An Cheathrú Rua – had a high number of fatalities and was the second most dangerous road in the entire country.

I often wonder (without ever finding out) what road was the worst in Ireland? I’m not even sure who told me or on what that status was based.

Well, if it was dangerous in the 1970s, it hasn’t improved a whit since then. The only difference is that the population along the entire stretch has boomed.

There have been protests by local communities about the risks the road poses every day for them and their children. In early April, and again this week, there were protests in Bearna, Na Forbacha, An Spidéal and Indreabhán attended by hundreds of parents and children.

They highlighted, in particular, that at a time when children are being encouraged to walk and to cycle to school, there is absolutely no safe route. They demanded immediate action to put in safety measures along the R336, a road which they say “puts lives at risk every day”.

They also want the national schools along the way to be included in the Safe Route to School — with pencil bollards, traffic calming measures, and proper and safe walking and cycling approaches to the school gates.

Pictured: Galway traffic…state agencies need to show energy and urgency to solve it.