NARROW WATER BRIDGE COMMUNITY NETWORK NEWSLETTER December 2020

NARROW WATER BRIDGE 
COMMUNITY NETWORK 
NEWSLETTER
December
2020 
 

The news that Joe Biden had convincingly won the US election was largely met with a great sense of relief throughout most of Europe and was especially welcomed in this part of the world.
 

 
On 12 November the New York Times featured a report on Prime Minister Boris Johnston's congratulatory call to the President-Elect. The article featured a picture of Narrow Water similar to the one shown.

To the image was appended the following caption: 
The border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. 
Mr. Biden “reaffirmed his support for the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland,” according to a statement issued by his transition office." 

While there may be narrow water between counties Down and Louth, the political gulf is about to get a great deal wider as the Brexit transition period ends at 11.00 pm on New Years Eve.

With the Biden ancestral homestead at Whitestown in County Louth the symbolism of a bridge straddling the new Great Divide will certainly not be lost on the incoming administration in Washington!

The  emblematic nature of the Narrow Water Bridge, we can be sure, is also very much in the mind of Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Early last month the newly appointed head of the Shared Island Unit at the Department of the Taoiseach, Aingeal O'Donoghue, reiterated Mr Martin's commitment to the bridge when she addressed members of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in the Dáil.

Ms O'Donoghue referred to the ring-fenced funding of €500 million for the Narrow Water Bridge and the other projects highlighted in the Shared Island Initiative. She was keen to emphasise the additionality of the money available to anything that may come from either Stormont or the government in Dublin. Further Ms O'Donoghue and her colleague Eoghan Duffy said that they were looking forward to engaging with local stakeholders to move the projects forward.

So as the great US baseball-playing philosopher once said, "It's deja vu all over again!" But is it?
The stars are certainly aligning and its is difficult to imagine how politicians North and South can easily retreat from their declared positions on the project.

The world is now a very different place from what it was in 2013 when the project collapsed unforgivably at the eleventh hour. It is said pandemics press the fast forward button of history. Covid 19 in a matter of months has changed everything! "We must build back better!" says the President-Elect.
 
We at the NWBCN are determined to ensure that the Narrow Water Bridge will provide vehicular access to unite not only communities around the Carlingford Lough but also to cater for the increased tourist arrival from the main entry point of Dublin Airport.
 
The proposed bridge will include a cycle and walk way – capitalising not only growth in active tourism but also on the rapid development of commuter cycling which is integral to any ‘Green Recovery” strategy.
 
Finally the design and nature of the bridge must preserve navigable access to the Albert Basin via the Newry Canal - failure to do so will deny future generations the opportunity to enjoy this ancient and legally protected ‘Blue Way’.

We can and we should learn from others. Interest in recreational cycling in Germany began in the 1980s. By 2007 the Germans had built almost 14,000 kilometres of dedicated cycle paths.These signposted paths followed rivers, canals and former railways. The arrival of the e-bike has facilitated greater access through more undulating landscapes.

Cities, towns and villages, recognising the vast tourist potential of the "Radwege"(cycle ways) began clamouring for a cycle path to pass their front door. Now almost a half a century later the Germans are busy developing the concept  of "commuter cycling" and are adapting their vast cycling path infrastructure to "Radschnellwege" ie express cycle ways. 

The development of a sophisticated commuter and recreational network of cycle paths the Germans believe will lead to less motorised traffic causing lower levels of pollution and traffic accidents. This will reduce the overall need for motorways and of course bring enormous health benefits to the population. Not an insignificant cultural shift for a country that invented the motor car and the motorway!

If we in this community were to apply this type of progressive thinking to our area, the building of the Narrow Water Bridge would instantly, and at very little cost, deliver our first cycle express way. The Omeath Road (above) runs through a sparsely populated area with Natura 2000 protection and AONB status. The bridge would facilitate access for Newry and northbound traffic from North Louth to the dual carriageway on the County Down side leaving the old road for residential access and cycling blending perfectly with Minister Mallon plans to "urgently integrate safe cycling into city life in Belfast, Derry and Newry."

This would breathe life into an area that has been an economic backwater for decades and help end the stubbornly unshakeable border twilight zone image.
It is no stretch of the imagination to visualise abandoned properties being reborn as cycle cafes and other critical tourist infrastructure - important staging posts on a long distance cycle route which will blend seamlessly at a local level with Minister Mallon's recent initiatives "to urgently integrate safe cycling into city life in Belfast, Derry and Newry."

Despite the increasingly positive news on the development of reliable vaccines there is, we are reminded, a tough winter ahead. We do however have the power to dramatically reduce risk to ourselves and others. Be safe! Bí sábháilte!
We at the NWBCN continue to send our best wishes to all on the front line of our health services north and south. Our thoughts are also with those have lost loved ones and those who are bearing the economic brunt in this terrible pandemic.

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Adrian O'Hare
Secretary 
NARROW WATER BRIDGE 
COMMUNITY NETWORK