The damaged barrier at the entrance to the carpark at Croagh Patrick | Mayo News
Murrisk volunteers threaten to withdraw Reek Weekend parking services over broken barrier
A local community group has warned Mayo County Council that it will not manage parking during one of Ireland's busiest annual pilgrimages unless a damaged car park barrier at the foot of Croagh Patrick is replaced without delay.
The barrier was severely dented and detached from the wall about four weeks ago when a vehicle smashed into it. The force of the crash ruptured the barrier from its fixture on the wall and so it is being held together by rope and chain at the moment.
The barrier being held together by a chain at the entrance to the Croagh Patrick carpark | Mayo News
The summer season is well underway in West Mayo already and is only going to get busier as May makes way for June and the schools finish.
The Murrisk Development Association (MDA), which coordinates traffic and parking for hundreds of vehicles over Reek Weekend each July, says it has been seeking a new barrier at the Croagh Patrick car park for five or six years — and that the council's continued inaction has now forced its hand.
The bent barrier at the entrance to the carpark in Croagh Patrick | Mayo News
"We have been on to the county council for maybe the last five or six years that a new barrier is needed there, and we were promised that there would be a new barrier put there," said MDA chairperson Frank McCarrick. "It has never happened, and we knew right well that sooner or later this was what would happen."
The current barrier, already described as being in a dangerous condition, was temporarily secured with a chain and padlock by a local engineer in recent days — but the fix proved short-lived.
One local told The Mayo News that within half an hour of tying the chain himself, a campervan arrived, removed it, drove through and left the barrier open. "Every campervan that's up there has got a bolt cutter," he said.
Another local explained that there were four campervans parked there over the weekend, taking up over 20 parking spaces between them.
A campervan parked over four parking space in the Croagh Patrick carpark | Mayo News
The MDA is calling for a proper fixture similar to the barrier on the Abbey Road leading to the nearby cemetery. "We are dismayed in Murrisk that the county council have left that barrier for so long without replacing it with a proper fixture," McCarrick said.
Over Reek Weekend, around 40 volunteers from the MDA manage traffic and parking across a 24-hour period beginning Saturday morning, accommodating up to 200 vehicles in the car park alone and as many as 600 hundred in a leased field nearby. The association leases the car park from the council and coordinates with the Gardaí, Mountain Rescue, St John's Ambulance and other bodies involved in the weekend.
Last year, nearly four thousand pilgrims climbed the Holy Mountain for Reek Sunday.
Without a secure barrier, McCarrick says the MDA cannot ask its volunteers to take responsibility for vehicles left overnight. "We couldn't really expect volunteers to take responsibility for the security of the place," he said. "We have no powers of enforcement."
The association has also flagged the ongoing issue of campervans, which McCarrick says take up large numbers of spaces, do not pay a premium to the council and contribute to litter problems that MDA volunteers routinely clean up.
In a formal letter to councillors, the MDA said it had issued "numerous verbal and text warnings" to council personnel without result, and put the council on notice that it "regrettably will not be in a position to control and manage the parking of vehicles over Reek Weekend in July" if the situation is not resolved.
"If we cannot know that the car park is secure, we will not be doing that this year," McCarrick said. "Once that barrier is there, we're happy that we can operate. But other than that, I wouldn't ask anybody to take responsibility."
The MDA has contacted local councillors seeking their assistance but has received no response to date. Mayo County Council has not yet commented on the matter.
