And this is what happens when nothing happens. Family businesses close, buildings lie vacant, become derelict and in some instances fall down! 

Critical tourist infrastructure is abandoned and begins to fade from living memory. No one under fifty can remember the above two structures as functioning buildings! 

In the period 2013 to 2018 the parliamentary constituency of South Down attracted a mere three percent share of the Invest Northern Ireland funding.

In recent years per capita spending in Newry Mourne & Down local council area has been roughly a quarter of that of Belfast.

In the financial year 2019/20 Invest Northern Ireland has managed to coax just two international investors to visit the adjoining parliamentary constituency of  Newry & Armagh. 

As Estragon complains in Beckett's masterpiece of the absurd. "Nothing ever happens, nobody comes..."

Narrow Water Bridge 2012 Design

Now less than a year and a half later the world is a very different place. Any recovery must be a Green Recovery. We must build back better says US President Biden. The Narrow Water Bridge will provide a critical and timely opportunity to deliver a flagship project which will contribute greatly to our green recovery.

As the community gradually got over the bitter disappointment of 2013 and the campaign to build the bridge regained its early momentum there were calls, mostly from Dublin, that "options" needed to be discussed.

The NWBCN would like to make it clear that we remain committed to the design that was approved in 2012. This is the only design which will achieve the following critical objectives:

1. To unite communities around the lough by making provision for vehicular traffic.

2. To capitalise not only on the continued growth in active tourism but to enhance the rapid development of commuter cycling which is central to any meaningful Green Recovery strategy ie appropriate cycle and walking lanes on the bridge.

3. To preserve the navigability of the Newry Canal - failure to do so will deny future generations the right to enjoy the ancient and protected "Blue Way" to the  Albert Basin in Newry. The bridge must be able to be raised to allow canal traffic through.

There is one other active group in the area who will feel a lot happier and safer with an almost traffic-free Omeath Road - the angling community. The fishing stands (above) along the road have never really worked due to the dangers of passing traffic.

Newry Canal is renowned for its rich and varied coarse fishing and has hosted many major competitions including the World Championships in the 1980s.

Some 50 years have passed since a bridge at Narrow Water was first mooted by a group of community activists and far-sighted local politicians from across the political divide, who back in the darkest days of the 1970’s, predicted that a bridge would bring valuable and much needed tourism to an impoverished area.

In the almost half-century which has now passed, we have had 30 years of political violence, economic stagnation, painful and faltering reconciliation, Assembly collapses and poloitical scandals of all sorts! Now we are deep in a pandemic and the full horrors of Brexit have yet to be revealed. 

Political commitment abounds to a bridge which has been designed, has planning permission and a ring-fenced budget. In addition promises have been made at the highest level of government to proceed to "full delivery without undue delay." 

Meanwhile like the hapless trio in Beckett's play for the people of Warrenpoint and the Carlingford Lough area the waiting goes on!

Adrian O'Hare

Secretary 

NARROW WATER BRIDGE

COMMUNITY NETWORK