NARROW WATER BRIDGE COMMUNITY NETWORK August 2021

NARROW WATER BRIDGE COMMUNITY NETWORK 
August 2021
 

Taoiseach announces Narrow Water Bridge!
Minister Mallon commits to integrated greenway infrastructure.

On the eve of Taoiseach Micheál Martin's announcement regarding the bridge, the NWBCN committee was holding a meeting. The mood was sombre and we were struggling to motivate ourselves for yet another long haul.

The reason for the despondency was that a few weeks earlier in the Seanad, Malcolm Noonan, standing in for Minister Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, in answer to a question regarding progress on the Narrow Water Bridge, said the following:  “The overall assessment of the case for the Narrow Water Bridge, including in the context of the development of a wider tourism initiative for the region, is not at a stage where it is a clearly defined and a costed scheme.”  
Such a statement on 24th May some fifteen months on from the New Decade New Approach Agreement, which revived the Stormont Assembly in January 2020 and in which the bridge was cited as an important infrastructural project to be delivered, was as mystifying as it was disheartening. It was especially so in the light of the litany of positive utterances in recent months from Taoiseach Martin and the NI Minister for Infrastructure, Nichola Mallon.
Perhaps we really shouldn't have been so surprised, as almost every public comment on the Narrow Water Bridge in the past five or six years from consecutive coalition governments in Dublin referred to the need to review 'options for a crossing at Narrow Water'.  This terminology even found its way into the Dublin government's contribution to the New Decade New Approach document. 
More worryingly still, it could clearly be inferred from Deputy Noonan's comments that 'options' included not having a crossing at all!
We had become the old men in the Greek proverb planting trees in whose shade they would never sit. However, in our case we were not even convinced that what we were trying to plant would ever take root. 
The very next morning, as the best stories go, the Taoiseach announced that he was committing €3m in funding from the Shared Island Fund to progress work on the Narrow Water Bridge to the tender stage, with building work beginning in 2023. Politics like the Divine moves in mysterious ways!

The wording, always carefully crafted in political announcements, had the ring of an opening gambit in a long hand of poker. It will be at least a year and a half before building is likely to begin. We can live with that. There was however a much more fundamental question requiring an answer. Did the Taoiseach's announcement spell the end for the dreaded 'options'? 

It did! There it was in black and white. The tenders sought would be based on the current design of the bridge and existing planning permission. Later it was confirmed that the cantilever mechanism which would allow the bridge to be raised was to be included therefore preserving access to the Newry Canal!

This is truly transformational good news for Warrenpoint and the Carlingford Lough area, If all goes well it will finally lift Warrenpoint and its immediate hinterland from the Border Twilight Zone in which it has languished for decades! But wait! We have been here before! 
"This time it's different", said one local on hearing the news. "The parties have painted themselves so far into a corner on this project that they must be on tiptoes by now!"
We at the NWBCN are less cynical. We congratulate Micheál Martin, who has always been one of our greatest supporters, for this visionary re-engagement with the Narrow Water Bridge Project and his undoubted commitment to see it delivered in its originally proposed form. Máith thú a Mhíchíl!

We also wish to take this opportunity to applaud the NI Minister for Infrastructure Nichola Mallon's consistent commitment to the Narrow Water Bridge. 

The NWBCN particularly welcome the Minister's pledge to push ahead with the development of the greenway infrastructure on the Northern side, in tandem with the tendering process on the Southern side.
Minister Mallon has taken fully on board the critical role that the bridge can play in developing active travel both locally and between the two jurisdictions. We will continue to engage with her Department and Newry Mourne & Down District Council to fully capitalise on the unique opportunity that building the bridge will create.  

It is now clear that the development of active travel is no longer a matter of choice, but an existential imperative.  A recently published report from the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action has strongly affirmed the need for a "major modal shift" in how we move about and has called for the introduction of "cycle superhighways". 
The latest Travel Survey for Northern Ireland 2017-19 produced by the Department for Infrastructure, shows that there is serious work to be done. Cycling in NI lags behind many of our European neighbours. Here just 10% of the population cycle daily or once a week. In Germany 41% cycle daily or several times a week.
In their "Cycle Nation 2030" strategy the Germans hope to double the distance of the average cycling trip and increase the frequency of cycle use by 30% - in the next eight and half years!
In the June edition of this newsletter, "Build the Narrow Water Bridge and get Ireland's first Cycle Expressway FREE!" (click on graphic below) the NWBCN set out how the ideal cycling topography and current road layout in and around Narrow Water provide the opportunity for a bold initiative which effectively creates Ireland's first cycle expressway, saving money and potentially lives in the process. This in our view represents an example of the "major modal shift" possible in this area. The NWBCN offer it as part of this community's contribution to reducing emissions.

For millennia, Narrow Water served as an important ferry crossing for farmers and fishermen. It was here in 1849 that a certain Owen Finnegan crossed, having made his way from his native Whitestown, on the southern shore of the Lough. He travelled to the nearby port of Warrenpoint and took a boat to the New World.

One hundred and seventy-one years later his great great grandson, Joseph R Biden Jr, became the 46th President of the United States.
The President has made much of his Irish heritage and it looks like a visit to the Emerald Isle is on the cards at some point in his term of office. 

With our neighbours in Carlingford hanging out the bunting already, the NWBCN would like to be the first to invite Joe to make the short journey, via the Narrow Water Bridge of course, to the Square in Warrenpoint - to stand on the spot where his ancestor stepped aboard the emigrant ship and have a selfie with Jim Boylan our chairman, if he's available.

'Old Greeks' looking for shade on the exceptionally warm day of the announcement at Narrow Water.
The NWBCN Committee readily admit that they are beginning to show their years but  wish to make it clear that they are pictured here on their way to BBC/RTÉ interviews at Narrow Water. 

The Warrenpoint & Rostrevor Conservation Society sign in the foreground, the Committee is keen to point out, is purely coincidental!

It is important to note that the announcement has been met by a cautious sense of optimism in the community at large, much needed in these worrying and uncertain times.
Younger people especially, are expressing a fervent hope that the Narrow Water Bridge will inspire a vision for focused and long term development which is sustainable, creating the opportunities that were denied previous generations. They demand a greener future, one that fully respects the natural capital in which this truly beautiful area of ours abounds.

Finally the NWBCN Committee would also like to thank the people of Warrenpoint and beyond including local political representatives in the Assembly and Newry Mourne & Down District Council for their support down the years. It has been a very long campaign but we didn't this far just to come this far! With your continued support this bridge will be built!  

Adrian O'Hare Secretary NARROW WATER BRIDGE Community Network

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