Craic On

Martin Farren

Did Martin Farren’s actions largely save Moville from the recent flood damage?

The road to Derry was closed between Muff and Quigley’s Point because of the floods and subsidence in the road.

All flights were off at City of Derry Airport after it was flooded.

The buses from Moville to Derry were off as well as the Moville taxis due to the time it took to get there via the back roads.

Moville Undamaged

However, Moville was largely undamaged by it all.

Surely the shore walk from Moville to Greencastle would have taken a hit.

Surely the River Row would have been flooded again with water flowing down the street.

Not  a bit of it.

During the last storms of a few years ago the shore walk was badly damaged.

Also, the lough had sent water into the back gardens of River Row residents and the river and lough flooded the road in the River Row.

Action Man

However, Councillor Martin Farren took action.

He called up the Labour junior minister and let the Government see film taken of the storms and the damage by Dr McGinley and others.

The Finance Minister was on TV saying the he promised action would be taken – and it was.

Martin, along with the Council, managed to get hundreds of thousands of Euros to repair the Shore Walk path.

Boulders for River Row

He also got massive boulders put up in the River Row to keep the lough out.

Generally the waters from the lough come over the top there several times a year.

Residents have to pick up the seaweed and plastic beottles etc.

However, since the boulders went in, the sea has not encroached on the land – including during the floods of earlier this week.

Money from Government

So, although Moville was hit by problems in the other places it was able to sit out the storm quite comfortably – much due to the actions of Martin Farren and the money he got from the Government.

Martin was the only Labour councillor to increase his vote at the last election. It was up by 17% when the average Labour Councillor lost 50% of their votes.

He was given the seal of approval by local people for actions taken like this which saved Moville from the worst of the storms.