The emptying of Irish towns and villages

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

I presided at a memorial service in the Anglican church in Kenmare at the end of February. The service was for the wife of a friend of mine, who died in January.

The music was provided by Kenmare community orchestra and members of a local choir. 

We had music from Mozart, Vivaldi and Karl Jenkins’ Benedictus.

Mozart’s Laudate Dominum had been requested by my friend’s wife before she died. Those lines of Psalm 117 are always magic but when put to music it is impossible not to be moved by them.

The Anglican priest in Kenmare, Michael Cavanagh was most hospitable and my visit was a lovely experience. It means so much when you feel welcomed in a place.

Kenmare is a fine town. It must have been two years since I was there visiting my friends and before that it was on the Ring of Kerry cycle.

In Irish it’s called An Neidín, meaning little nest. Originally in Irish it was called Ceann Mara, head of the sea. An Neidín conveys the idea of a little town nesting in the crook of the harbour.

I reported in this column back in October that I had decided to get rid of my car on December 1. I am now three months into being carless and I have certainly become aware of the seduction of the motorcar. 

While having done less than 700 kilometres the previous 12 months when I had a car, now without a car there are occasions when I panic and desperately feel I need one. But that’s exactly what seduction is. That urge that we need something when in fact with a little bit of thought we might well be able to manage without.

Travelling from West Kerry to Kenmare forced home on me that it is well-nigh impossible for people outside cities to survive without a car. How often in my few days in Kerry did I hear people say that the politicians in Dublin have no idea what life is like outside the Pale. And they have a point.

Towns and villages are emptying and parts of rural Ireland are in real crisis. A wise man suggested to me that might it not be an idea for government to introduce new tax laws whereby people living in sparsely populated areas be exempt from paying tax on their earnings. It’s not at all as mad an idea as it may first sound.

To get from West Kerry to Kenmare means taking three buses there and another three back. In my case a kind neighbour drove me to the nearest stop, which is a drive of eight kilometres.

The buses on the main routes seem to be relatively busy but the bus from Killarney to Kenmare, at least any time I have travelled on it, carries a handful of passengers. A large 50-seater bus with five or six passengers can’t be viable, especially when a proportion of the passengers have Travel Passes. 

Why not use smaller vehicles on quiet routes?

It can’t make economic sense when the main employers in our towns are hospitals and Institutes of Technology.

Ireland is more than Dublin and the other smaller cities in the country. There is desperate need for serious thinking about bringing life back to rural Ireland. For example why can’t we have more state of the art fish processing factories close to fishing harbours?

It’s simply not good enough for someone in Dubin to decide to close post offices.

We need more imaginative thinking.