Irish Examiner view: Adare bypass decision raises questions about our priorities
While Adare certainly needs a bypass — the 'Irish Examiner' highlighted this in its Bypass Ireland series — many are asking if it is being prioritised over other Cork and Limerick projects to facilitate some millionaire sportspeople. Picture: Dan Linehan
The poor quality of the main road connecting Cork and Limerick — two of the biggest urban areas in the country — has been a hot-button topic for years. Earlier this year, for instance, Kanturk-Mallow Municipal District Council councillors expressed concern that a greenway proposed between Charleville in Cork and Patrickswell in Limerick appeared to be getting priority over the proposed upgrade of the N/M20 between Cork and Limerick: Work on that upgrade is scheduled to begin in 2027.
This week, however, we learned that the Government is to carry out significant road works in Limerick with far more urgency. Transport Minister Eamon Ryan is to seek Government approval to deliver the Adare bypass road in time for the Ryder Cup, which is scheduled for Adare in September 2027.
This project is likely to be of huge benefit to the residents of Adare, but the speed with which it is being pursued raises some interesting issues. Political observers may frown at the prospect of a Green Party minister facilitating a road bypass, but that is hardly the most pressing question posed by this development.
While Mr Ryan dutifully enumerated the advantages this project will confer on Adare — less congestion, better air quality, safer roads, more green spaces — he also acknowledged that facilitating the Ryder Cup is another reason for progressing the bypass. Making a golf tournament a smoother experience for players and spectators is therefore a motivating force in approving major infrastructural works.
Should that be the case?
Supporters of the Ryder Cup will no doubt point to the economic boost to the area when the event is underway, but is a few days’ golf tourism reason enough to build a bypass? There are other parts of the Cork-Limerick corridor where large-scale road improvements are not just a matter of temporary economic improvement but a safety requirement which is long overdue.
The other unfortunate conclusion to be drawn from this news is that other areas of Ireland can expect infrastructural improvements when they can facilitate millionaire sportspeople.
Otherwise they can expect to wait.
In an age of confected far-right protests and social media manipulation of fear and uncertainty, it can be easy to assume that xenophobia is widespread and deep-rooted throughout Ireland.
As a necessary counterbalance to that pessimistic view — precisely the impact sought by racists promoting that xenophobia, of course — it is encouraging to see newcomers to this country make ambitious plans that underline their own culture while simultaneously making a deep commitment to their new home.
On Tuesday, this newspaper reported that the Indian community in Cork has prepared ambitious plans for a large Indian-Irish cultural centre in the city, with a temple and apartments — the first premises of its kind in Ireland.
At a celebration of the Indian festival of Diwali last week-end, details of the project emerged. The centre, which would be self-financed, will include a large community hall and play area; a cultural centre with capacity for 400 people and a performance space; short-stay accommodation apartments for Indian students or medics who have arrived in Cork, and a purpose-built temple.
Kishore Doddakula, spokesman for the project, pointed out that there are 5,000 Indians living in Cork but there is no Hindu temple.
Such a centre would be a welcome addition to Cork city, and to Ireland as a whole. It would stand for diversity in its most overt and obvious form, a bricks-and-mortar representation of the traditions, beliefs, and culture of a group of people a long way from home.
In that sense it would echo the many Irish cultural centres, formal and informal, which can be found all over the world, and which stand for both integration and preservation.
Integration when it comes to location and preservation when it comes to culture. May the Indian centre in Cork be just the first of its kind.
The soccer international between Ireland and New Zealand on Tuesday night had the strong sense of an end to it — the end of the Stephen Kenny era.
Kenny is officially still in place as Ireland manager, but it is widely believed that last evening’s game was his last.
The FAI has had plenty of off-field troubles lately and finding — and funding — a new manager presents a significant headache. Before that search begins officially, however, a review is usually carried out of the most recent qualification campaign.
That will not be an enjoyable meeting for anyone.
It is generally accepted that Kenny has drawn from a shallower pool of talent than many of his predecessors and many of his results have illustrated that point, such as the embarrassing defeat to Luxembourg in Dublin two years ago.
Whether Kenny would have achieved more with better players is impossible to say, though he at least attempted to make the team easier on the eye. But a popular choice for a homegrown manager with a League of Ireland background hasn’t worked. All eyes now turn to whether the FAI can pull a rabbit out of the hat in its choice of his successor.
