{"id":620159,"date":"2026-09-10T08:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620159\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T08:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:08:13","slug":"powerful-storms-are-more-common-threat-of-rising-sea-levels-and-coast-erosion-in-galway-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620159\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Powerful storms are more common\u2019: Threat of rising sea levels and coast erosion in Galway \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\u00e1draig Campbell sees the impact of climate change<\/a> every day on his morning walks along Mags\u2019 Boreen Beach in Bearna, Co Galway<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t hold back water \u2013 the power of it,\u201d he says, at low tide on Tuesday, as he points to human-built rock armour at the beach that has been steadily damaged by storm waves over the years. <\/p>\n

Bearna is a former fishing village 7km west of Galway city. It used to be a small, rural settlement, but has experienced a population explosion since the noughties when it was dubbed \u201cG4\u2033, in part due to Dublin 4-like eye-watering prices for properties overlooking Galway Bay. <\/p>\n

It is not only house prices that have risen in the satellite village; a report from researchers at University College Cork<\/a> has warned that this picturesque coastal community is one of many areas nationwide poised to feel the effects of rising sea levels. <\/p>\n

The study found that more than 20,000 people in Dublin<\/a>, and almost 10,000 people in Galway city, live within 500 metres of coastline classified as being at very high risk of flooding<\/a>, erosion, sea level rise or coastal hazards. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Flood map: See the Irish coastline areas at \u2018very high\u2019 risk from flooding, erosion or sea level rise<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Campbell, who has lived for more than four decades with the Atlantic on his doorstep at Freeport, Bearna, and who spent his working life on oil rigs in the North Sea, is not surprised by the analysis. <\/p>\n

\u201cMassive storms had huge impact on the rigs, everything would have to stop. Often a storm would be dissipated by the time it reaches land, but now it continues in. I can see now the storms are having more of an impact,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\"RockRock armour erosion at Mags’ Boreen. Photograph: Dara Bradley <\/p>\n

Campbell points to layers of blanket surface peat bog, and tree stumps of bog oak and Scots pine dating to 2000 BC, protruding from sand at Mags\u2019 Boreen beach. This is evidence, he says, of the sea encroaching over time on to what was once a Neolithic forest. <\/p>\n

About 500 metres west of Mags\u2019 Boreen is Bearna Pier, rebuilt by Alexander Nimmo in the 1820s, which offers some protection, but storms continue to cause erosion, Campbell says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more frequent storms. They come in further; you can see that from the seaweed lines. They\u2019re more powerful. The storm surges move boulders. The sea is churning into the rock armour and it\u2019s undermining it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The risks posed to the village by climate change have been the subject of public debate in recent years when the topic of development on the coastline has come up. <\/p>\n

Campbell says locals should be allowed to build homes on family land, but he supports the retention of a 30-metres exclusion zone in the Co Galway Development Plan that prevents building close to the shore in the village core. This is to protect against future flooding. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlanning in Bearna needs to take account of the latest [climate] reports,\u201d he says, while referencing the controversial and ultimately unsuccessful efforts in 2022 to cut the exclusion to a 15-metre setback. <\/p>\n

Author and educator Margie Connolly, who lives in New Village, on the coast towards Furbo, is the fourth generation of the Hernon family reared next to the sea in Bearna. <\/p>\n

In her recently published book, Come to Your Landing Pier, Connolly reflects on a small pier to the rear of her home, where her father used to fish for mackerel in traditional currach boats. <\/p>\n

The landing pier has deteriorated through lack of investment and sea damage over the years, but there has been \u201cno dramatic change\u201d, says the retired teacher and former deputy principal of Salerno Secondary School in Salthill. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am very mindful of climate change, especially the weather we are getting, [but] I don\u2019t remember any flooding in the back garden; nothing like that has happened. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m living by the sea all my life. I know from walking the shore since we were children that it\u2019s a different place now. One time it was very even and flat, whereas now, with every storm that comes, the shoreline is rocked up more. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child, it was much more even down by the shore, but maybe if my father was alive, he\u2019d be saying that totally changed in his lifetime as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Born and raised in Bearna, Eugene Greaney has seen many changes in the village over his almost 80 years.<\/p>\n

\"'The‘The sea is coming up, all right. In the beginning I didn\u2019t believe it, but it is,’ Eugene Greaney says. Photograph: Dara Bradley <\/p>\n

The retired gardener for many years tended the flowers at the village\u2019s pub and seafood restaurant, Donnelly\u2019s, known for its Guinness, chowder and floral hanging baskets. <\/p>\n

He has lived at Lacklea in a cottage within 500 metres of the coastline for more than 60 years and has seen the sea levels slowly creep up over his lifetime. <\/p>\n

His back-garden greenhouse, where he grew cherry tomatoes, was destroyed when Storm \u00c9owyn<\/a>, one of Ireland\u2019s most powerful storms, brought record-breaking gusts of wind off Mace Head, Connemara, in January last year. <\/p>\n

Greaney\u2019s home is on a hill, which offers protection, but he predicts the might of the Atlantic will be felt more acutely in years to come. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe sea is coming up, all right. In the beginning I didn\u2019t believe it, but it is. It will come up in time \u2013 but not my time,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Galway West TD and Bearna native, John Connolly, says while there has been flash-flooding during heavy rain in the village previously, coastal flooding poses a more immediate risk to Galway city. <\/p>\n

The Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> politician is concerned about slow progress on the long-awaited Galway City Flood Relief Scheme being developed by the local authority and Office of Public Works<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Known as Coirib go C\u00f3sta, the proposal promises to offer protection from flooding along an expansive area of coastline stretching from Lough Atalia in Renmore, to the east of Galway City, as far as Silverstrand, where the western city boundary meets Bearna. <\/p>\n

Connolly says the scheme \u2013 designed to protect against a one-in-100-year weather event<\/a> \u2013 was mooted a decade ago, but it could be another eight years before it is completed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand in Galway they\u2019re designing a flood-relief project that protects against river, stormwater and coastal flooding and they have merged them all into one project. It has far greater complexity than they had an awareness of initially and that has been the reason for the substantial delay,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cGalway City Council has described it as the most important infrastructure project for the city. Parts of the city are in peril if we don\u2019t get it developed. But even by [the council\u2019s] own timeline, they\u2019re saying they won\u2019t have it done before 2033.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P\u00e1draig Campbell sees the impact of climate change every day on his morning walks along Mags\u2019 Boreen Beach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2885,46832,615,246,895,849,4500,61,60,82,5170,13354,18335],"class_list":["post-620159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-coastal-living","tag-dublin","tag-environment","tag-fianna-fail","tag-floods","tag-galway","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-storm-eowyn","tag-university-college-cork-ucc","tag-weather-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}