Over 50ac of John Nolan’s farm in Kiltartan, near Gort, Co Galway, is flooded as a result of the recent deluge

One of his slatted sheds is at risk of flooding and the floodwaters are within a foot and a half of entering the slats. In the short-term, he is looking for alternative accommodation for the 60 cattle in the shed.

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“If there isn’t something physically done this year, I’ll seriously be thinking of changing what I’m at. I think I’d be doing something like buying in cattle, let them graze it for the summer and off again in winter. It’s just pure hardship.

“It’s hardship and there’s nothing out of it. There’s only so much you can put up with. It’s grand; it will go away and everybody forgets about it but these few days are just torture,” he said.

Nolan has said it’s time for something do be done.

“It’s time to see machines on the ground. We’ve had nearly 30 years of excessive flooding. We’ve had report after report and there’s been no physical work done on the ground. The work has to start now,” he said.

Land management

Local activist David Murray of the South Galway Floods Relief Committee said there are two solutions to the flooding in south Galway – better management of the Slieve Aughty Mountains and management of turlough levels from mountain to sea.

“We need to stop messing with the Slieve Aughty mountains. What I mean by ‘messing with’ is, if a new forest is being planted up there you could have 200ha of a replanted forest and the first thing they’ll do is drain, to make sure that the forest gets a nice dry base.

“They will dig drains. It’s part of good forest management. It’s not part of good flood management,” he said.

On the turlough levels, he said the results of a feasibility study are due soon. “The project has been going on for three years and not a spade has been put in the ground, but that’s because a lot of the analysis was trying to figure out those maximum levels,” he said.