Clone Beach cut off by fast flowing river…again!

By Dan Walsh

A North Wexford public representative is calling on Wexford County Council Environment Section and local interest groups to come up with a resolution before the holiday season as access to the sea at Clone Beach has been cut off.

“For the past number of years there have been ongoing issues locally in the Castletown area of North Wexford in relation to the course of the Ahare River as it enters the Irish Sea,” said local Cllr Joe Sullivan, who added; “We have now arrived at the point that one cannot access the sea at Clone from the Beach as it is cut off by the fast flowing river.”

Cllr Sullivan explains that this situation arises due to the fact that as soon as the Ahare River arrives at the Clone Beach it turns North and continues on this course until it reaches the rocks at the most northerly point of the beach.

For generations and indeed hundreds of years the course of the river was managed by local people who although without university degrees had an innate knowledge of the river and its course. They in their infinite wisdom cut a channel the short distance across the beach and let the water directly out to sea thereby protecting the beautiful expanse of golden sandy beach.

Cllr Sullivan says that “modern thinking now suggests that the river should be allowed to flow north thereby doing away with the beach as we know it. This maybe the Environmentally correct thing to do but it does not come without its drawbacks, the first been that the river is cutting quite deep into the beach and is fast flowing thereby creating a danger to small children, secondly the ability of fish to travel up the river during spawning season is greatly compromised and thirdly the impact on this traditional tourist area during the summer months will be detrimental to businesses in the area that depend on the tourism industry for the majority of their annual income.”

Cllr Sullivan is calling on the Wexford County Council Environment Section along with all local interest groups to get together and to come up with a pragmatic and common-sense resolution to this issue before the holiday season kicks in so that everyone is safe in the knowledge that the Castletown area offers the best natural amenities to be found anywhere in County Wexford or indeed Ireland.