Minister for Tourism Patrick O’Donovan is pressing ahead with the implementation of the controversial Connemara Greenway, despite local opposition to the way in which the project has been handled and claims that much of the land to be occupied by the cycling and walking route is privately owned.

O’Donovan has announced almost €1,125,000 in funding from Fáilte Ireland for two projects along the Wild Atlantic Way. A grant of €896,000 is going to Galway County Council for the Connemara Greenway and a grant of €225,000 is being allocated to the OPW for the first phase of the development of new visitor facilities on the Great Blasket Island.

The greenway grant will fund a new section of the route from Cloonbeg to Athy, running adjacent to Ballynahinch Castle, with an estimated completion date next May. This development is part of a wider plan for the Clifden to Oughterard Greenway that will link up with the planned Greenway from Galway City to Oughterard – ultimately resulting in a 78km Galway to Clifden Greenway.

The Galway to Oughterard section of the route has locals in parts of Connemara, Moycullen, Rosscahill and Oughterard up in arms over lack of consultation with landowners and residents about the planned route. When maps of the route first went on public display last December, locals along the route welcomed the idea of the Greenway, but are objecting as they say that the majority of the path is being routed through private property.

In Association with

Railway Line

Some of the route would be along part of the old railway line and landowners said that this is now private property which they are rightfully entitled to.

“The landowners involved were never even allowed the opportunity to view the maps individually or as a group before the public were invited to view the maps. These lands are privately owned and that must surely by a violation of private property rights and constitutional rights,” said Martin Gibbons, chair of the local branch of the Irish Farmers Association.

Among the concerns are close proximity to private dwelling houses and family homes, the division of farm holdings, privacy, lack of consultation by the council and security and safety concerns for proposed users given the close proximity to farms in the area.

Gibbons added: “We are calling on Galway County Council to look at the alternatives and take the concerns of the affected parties into consideration. We feel that publicly owned lands are key alternative to securing an alternative route.

“In a letter to the IFA from ministers Michael Ring and Paschal O’Donoghue, they stated that the cycle way must dock in every town and yet this not the case in the West, where it bypasses Moycullen, Rosscahill, and Oughterard and we are heavily reliant on tourism in the Connemara region. The route is mainly running through privately owned land, some of which was formerly the Galway Clifden railway line, closed since 1935 and bought back by the landowners along the route.”