This article is from page 14 of the 2014-01-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
MARTIN Clancy has lived all his life in Cloughanhincy, Quilty.
He and his wife Silvia reside on the family farm and happily planned to see out their lives in this picturesque part of the county.
Today however the 82 year old lives in fear of a wave from the Atlantic invading his home again.
“In the way things are going, if they don’t do something we are going to have to move,” he said speaking from his bungalow on Wednesday.
He was particularly worried about the next high tide, timed for early Sunday morning on February 1.
“I won’t be around here. How can we stay here? I mean you would be frightened,” he said.
As a farmer and a man from the west coast of Clare, Mr Clancy has battled with the elements all of his life, and has learnt to live with them, but January 7 last was one of the most terrorising experiences of his life.
“22 years ago we were badly flooded, “ he said referring to when the river burst its banks and the sea “came in” in the early 1990s.
“That time was bad, but this is really a disaster altogether. It is fright- ening now,” he said.
The mild spoken man said the community looked for proper coastal protection then and “they didn’t do it.”
If he and his wife are to continue living among the friends and neighbours they have known for a lifetime, then the € 2.58 million requested by the council from central Government for coastal protection work must be allocated, and the work completed as soon as possible.