Mother and son’s farms destroyed by Storm Desmond

Ciara Galvin

MARY Nee has lived in and farmed the Errif Valley in Leenane for the past 40 years, and despite her farm being flooded year after year she says Storm Desmond is ‘the last straw’.
“Over the years we’ve got flooded and we’ve kept quiet,” says Mary. However, following the weekend’s catastrophic deluge and its impact on her farm and the farm of her son TomΡs, Mary says she ‘cannot see a way forward’.
“This is the fourth time our farms have been flooded this year … An elderly relative lives beside us, and if he became ill on Saturday night we could do nothing. Nothing could get in or out,” she explains.
As Mary and her son’s land are special areas of conservation, Mary says they are left with no options for solving the continuous flooding. “We cannot touch it,” she says, adding that the Fisheries Board has refused to allow them put boulders on the banks of the Errif River. “It’s so dangerous now that we can’t let fishermen down there,” says Ms Nee, exasperated. “We have asked for the banks of the river to be protected.”
Ms Nee says most of the damage has been done to a six-acre island belonging to her son which hasn’t been farmed since early October.
“Once the flooding went down, we were fine, but the destruction and damage left is hard to look at. Replacing wire and fencing … To see two feet of water in the sheds … we had to let the animals out of the sheds. We just got in hay, and it’s ruined. There is a huge financial loss, and a loss of pride for what we have protected,” explains Ms Nee.
She went on to explain that while they saved 40 bales of silage last year, this year they could  save ‘barely anything’.
“We didn’t sleep Saturday night, we were too scared, not being able to get near animals until Sunday. You close your eyes and think ‘That’s it’,” said Ms Nee.
“I’ve sent pictures to my daughter in England and my son in Italy and they’re heartbroken, it’s their home place.”

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