Loved by cyclists, loathed by landowners, why are greenways so divisive?

Karl and Elaine Marquardt, from Co Kildare, are dropping rentals back to the adjoining bike hire, along with Keith Moran and Craig Bradshaw, the only member of their party to opt for an electric bike. “I said I’d treat myself today,” Mr Bradshaw says with a grin.

A few minutes later, the stragglers of the group, Deborah Bradshaw and Sabina Moran, cycle into the yard. Ms Moran is making a joke of her tiredness, and hobbles theatrically over to the outdoor seating, to laughter from her friends.

Staying in a house in Wexford for the weekend, the group have taken advantage of the good weather with a spin: starting in Kilmacthomas, they cycled 3kms outside Dungarvan before turning back. They’ve done 38kms, taking in some of the best of Ireland’s longest greenway, and they’re delighted with their afternoon. It’s not their first time cycling the Waterford Greenway, and they all say it compares well to other greenways they’ve done.

Despite aching legs, Ms Moran is all smiles as they discuss the highlights of their spin.

“The greens, the foliage, the view of the mountains,” she says. 

It’s just so beautiful. The tunnel is amazing: with all the ferns, it looks like something prehistoric.

“But I’m doing it on an electric bike if I ever do it again!” 

Liam Keating, owner of Waterford Greenway Bike Hire, says visitors like the Marquardts, Morans and Bradshaws are now the mainstay of business on the greenway: staycationers who often return.

He operates a fleet of 700 bikes, 50 electric bikes and a variety of attachments like child seats and trailers, from three depots in Dungarvan, Kilmacthomas and Waterford city.

Mr Keating is from Kilmacthomas. He was unemployed, having worked in the furniture and flooring business, when he spotted a bike rental business opportunity before the entire length of the greenway was completed in 2017. 

Now he employs six staff and up to seven additional seasonal workers during the busy months of summer.

“I just decided to take a chance on this, and very well it has gone since,” he says. It’s early October: peak season might be over, but there are still plenty of rentals. He opens his computer, looks at his group bookings: a group of scouts on Saturday, 55 for a school tour on Monday, 120 transition year students on Tuesday.

Seasonality is a huge factor for his business, and this will be the second year that he will shut up shop for the quiet months of December and January.

Waterford Greenway opened to much fanfare in 2017. It attracted 250,000 visitors in its first year and over 280,000 each of the following two years.

For Kilmacthomas, and for neighbouring areas, Mr Keating says the Waterford Greenway has been a staggeringly successful tale of rural regeneration, injecting much-needed investment and opportunity into a previously quiet stretch of the southeast.

“In Kilmac, the Centra has been upgraded, there’s two new restaurants, the town is looking well because the council is more inclined to give extra money to things like Tidy Towns,” he says. “They’re small things, but they make a huge difference.

“Even up the Comeragh mountains, there’s a new track, a coffee shop, a glamping site, two restaurants. There was nothing only sheep there 10 years ago. That all started with the greenway.” 

But is Waterford Greenway a realistic template for the many other greenway projects now underway all over the country?

Almost €1 billion on greenways by 2040 

Transport Infrastructure Ireland announced €72 million in greenway funding for 70 different projects in 2024. A National Cycle Network (NCN) plan published in January 2024 hopes to link up 3,500kms of cycle facilities including greenways, cycle paths and Eurovelo routes by 2040.

The NCN plan envisages a spend of €940m on greenways in the next 16 years. The emphasis is on active travel: a segregated network of car-free pathways suited for bikes, walking and mobility aids. But they are also intended to boost Ireland’s tourism offering and attract cyclists from Europe and beyond.

The notable successes of Waterford Greenway and its predecessor, the 42km Great Western Greenway in Co Mayo, linking Westport town with Achill Sound, have given rise to the expectation that where a greenway goes, an influx of visitors and cash will follow.

Mr Keating says after an initial dizzying boom of custom for benefiting businesses, Waterford Greenway usage started to settle down after the first five years, creating what is now a less busy, but certainly highly sustainable, long-term business for his rental company.

“The first few years was just crazy,” he says. 

Now, what we have is an awful lot of repeat business, and lots of families, who are attracted to the safety. 

The business initially included a shuttle bus so people could cycle a stretch of their choosing. Post-covid, Mr Keating outsourced this element to another company: this year, they couldn’t find drivers, so section users now rely on an hourly Bus Eireann service to return to their starting point.

Touring cyclists aren’t a common sight on the Waterford Greenway compared to the large numbers of domestic visitors. But Mr Keating thinks this will change when plans to link up the Waterford Greenway with New Ross in Co Wexford, and eventually with Rosslare, come to fruition.

“Then we will get all those international cyclists. They’ll be able to arrive by ferry and spend their first two or three days cycling safely off-road all the way as far as Dungarvan,” Mr Keating says. “Then we’ll need more things like campsites and glamping and cheaper lines of accommodation along this stretch.” 

Greenway or Railway?

A greenway connecting the entire southeast, meaning cyclists could have a protected corridor all the way to Cork City, has long been mooted as a goal.

But a proposal to link up Rosslare Port with Waterford along a stretch of railway used for freight up until the 1990s, advocated for by many, has been decided against, with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan opining that the more sustainable option was to re-open the railway and ultimately route a greenway inland to New Ross from Rosslare Port.

With the population growth being planned for by 2040, local councillors have even said that ultimately instituting a passenger service on the Rosslare to Waterford railway line would be a stronger move for sustainable transport in the region.

A 6km stretch of the South East Greenway from New Ross to Glenmore has already opened, but a 12km Wexford town to Rosslare Strand greenway is at route selection stage.

My greenway or the highway: compulsory purchase orders and land disputes 

You can hear the hurt and anger in Nora Kearney’s voice as she tells how she and her husband Seán first learned that engineers working for Mayo County Council had identified a swathe of their farmland as one of 10 “route options” for a proposed 6km stretch of the Clew Bay Greenway between Belclare and Murrisk.

“The first thing we heard about this greenway was that there was a map up in a local restaurant, displaying all the landowners’ land,” Ms Kearney says. “We were not informed about it.” 

The Kearneys are well past retirement age. Ms Kearney first moved to the area known as Cloonagh, inland from Murrisk and Belclare, in the shadow of Croagh Patrick in a valley she says is known as “God’s pocket,” when she married. The land has been in her husband’s family for at least five generations. She spent her working life as headmistress of a local school.

Uncountable hours of hard labour on the part of Mr Kearney’s grandparents and great-grandparents went into building dry-stone walls, a distinctive feature of the local landscape, around six lower fields where Mr Kearney has kept up a tradition of mixed farming, mostly sheep and cattle. It is across these fields that the preferred greenway route runs.

“The walls are precious, built by special care,” Ms Kearney says. “We are totally against ploughing up our beautiful land and taking away our prized possessions. Seán is entitled to hand on his property to the next generation, as he promised his late father.” 

She says her husband has been “devastated” by the worry of the situation: 

It has caused us such untold anxiety, and so much worry, that we have had medical help over it. 

The lack of communication, the fact that their land was publicly displayed as part of the greenway route options without anyone from the local authority having had the courtesy to come and talk to them, is deeply upsetting to the Kearneys.

After the first public consultation in September 2023, there was another in February of this year: the Kearney’s land on the preferred route. To date, a registered letter is the only contact they have had from the council.

One thing is clear: in the case of the Kearneys, it is now too late to begin a positive engagement on the proposed greenway route. They feel angry, scared, and not inclined to trust in any process to come.

“How far it will have to go, we will have to take it,” Ms Kearney says. “It can be objected to in the High Court, and that’s what all the neighbours are planning to do.” 

TII code of conduct 

When Transport Infrastructure Ireland took over the development of greenways, they stipulated that any land the greenways were on must be owned by the local authority: this land can be acquired through a voluntary process, or by Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO).

Against an earlier furore regarding South Kerry greenway CPOs, which caused Irish Farmers Association (IFA) representatives to give inflammatory statements to the media in 2018, a code of best practice for developing greenways was published by the TII in December 2021, with the approval of groups including the IFA. This code was supposed to offer a path of best practice for engaging with landowners on proposed greenway routes.

“The project promoter will take all reasonable steps to notify each property holder likely to be affected by the preferred route, in advance of official public announcements,” the TII code states.

In an emailed statement, a press officer for Mayo County Council did not directly address the Irish Examiner’s question as to why the Kearneys and others were not approached in advance of a route option with their land on it being made public.

“This event was advertised in local newspapers, church newsletters and on social media in the weeks prior to the event and the event was well attended,” the Mayo County Council representative said.

“Following both consultation events several landowner consultations had taken place and as we are still in Phase 2 ‘Option Selection’ they will continue over the coming months as the project progresses to the planning stage. Mayo County Council welcomes the opportunity to discuss the project with all landowners and interested parties and strongly encourages engagement.”

As part of the greenway selection process, a cultural heritage report is currently being developed by consultants for the council.

Another neighbour of the Kearneys, Lucy Fabby, had land included in the first route options, but after she explained to engineers that the mapped area of her land flooded and was underwater for up to 40 days each year, it was removed and now does not appear on the identified “preferred route.” 

Although her own land appears to be no longer affected, she is still a vocal opponent of the plan to cross the valley and says she believes a cycle path alongside the coastal R335 would not only mean a lower environmental impact, but would be preferred by cyclists over the longer, more hilly inland route through Cloonagh.

“If tourists want to come and cycle up here, we have a maze of beautiful little stone wall-lined roads in this area that are already empty, with almost no cars on them,” she says.

As for active travel, the few commuters that go by bike from this area into Westport will not take a detour up here to Prospect Hill on their way to work. I believe they will continue to cycle along the R335. And they still won’t be safe. 

Mrs Fabby believes that since the TII took over the development of greenways, the process has become more fraught, that a “co-operation fund” paid to landowners willing to voluntarily dispose of their land, versus the court-enforced CPO process for others in the same community, will prove particularly divisive.

“I feel the greenway strategy has changed,” she says. “The Great Western Greenway was all done consensually. The farmers still own the land. The separation and the CPO process has been really, really divisive in the community. People are playing their cards very close to their chest. 

We don’t know who is speaking to who, and the TII aren’t telling us. They want to talk now, but it’s a bit late: they should have done this at the beginning.

She says the approach of publicising potential routes before personally notifying landowners has left “elderly people in the area very frightened. I feel very strongly that it’s a form of elder abuse”. 

Counting opportunities 

As many more greenway projects progress, vocal opposition like Mrs Fabby’s is becoming more common: a proposed Mallow to Dungarvan route along the abandoned rail line went back to the drawing board this summer for a further feasibility study following landowner complaints.

There was a protest at the end of August outside Louth County Council offices against land acquisition for a Dundalk to Carlingford greenway that is at route selection phase.

Kieran Kelly, based in Kilkenny, says he wishes landowners could view the presence of a greenway as an opportunity, rather than a threat.

Mr Kelly is a web designer who spotted a different kind of opportunity presented by Irish greenways: he noticed that there was no online centre of information bringing all Ireland’s emerging greenways together, and so in 2021 he launched greenwaysireland.org to act as an information hub. 

He also administrates the Greenways Ireland Facebook group, where positive news about emerging and opening greenways is balanced with lively debate from those protesting against them.

“Yes, CPOs are causing a lot of friction in some areas,” Mr Kelly says. 

People are saying, this will divide up my farm and make it unviable. There are valid concerns, but overall, for the greater good, I do believe they are beneficial to local communities. 

He says landowners are being offered a valuable asset in the form of greenway frontage, if they are flexible enough to take advantage of it: he points to the example of Park Beo Greenway Hub, outside Navan on the Boyne Valley to Lakelands Greenway, which opened in May of this year. The Doughty family business spotted the opportunity, and pivoted from a garage and shop to now providing everything from campervan parking to bike rental to a coffee stall.

“TII can only put in the infrastructure, and then it’s about local communities seizing the opportunity,” he says. “It’s about thinking outside the box. Farmers might be able to diversify: if you’re alongside a greenway, could you have a campervan park, or rent a spot to a coffee stall? Work with local enterprise offices and see if you can capitalise on it.” 

For Mr Kelly, a National Cycling Network is the dream: connecting towns and villages not only for tourists, but for walkers and commuters and to give children in rural areas a safe route to school. He points out that the hostility to greenways in particular is a mindset issue as much as anything else, a phenomenon of the Irish love affair with the private car which views cycling as somehow regressive, cheap, part of an impoverished past, perhaps.

“Motorways have gotten over huge stumbling blocks, but there seems to be a bigger backlash against greenways,” he says.

In the emerging protests against land acquisition for greenways, Mr Kelly thinks he sees echoes of a “backlash against government”, part of a broader dissatisfaction with heavy-handed planning decisions and government decisions seen as non-supportive of rural living.

But if a power shift comes at the next election, will a future government back-pedal on the National Cycle Network to appease rural voters? Only time will tell, he believes.

“I’ll put it this way: with elections on the horizon, I’d be concerned about what’s going to happen, and who is going to get into power. So much money has been spent on greenways already. It would be a huge waste not to connect up all these areas and create all that opportunity.”

Youghal to Midleton greenway: should it have been rail?

There was a 5,630km rail network in Ireland in 1920. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, much of this infrastructure was systematically demolished. Today the Irish rail network is less than half the size it was a century ago.

Abandoned rail routes are considered prime greenway opportunities. “Special attention should be given to the opportunities of using both the disused rail network and canal or river towpaths and cycling and walking routes,” the TII stated in a 2010 greenway scoping study.

East Cork County Councillor Liam Quaide believes the demolition of Ireland’s rail system was “a historic tragedy, an act of national self-harm”. Cllr Quaide launched a campaign in 2018 to re-instate the 24km disused Youghal to Midleton railway line, even as the plans to convert it to a greenway got underway.

East Cork relies on the main artery of the N25, and the now-revamped Dunkettle Interchange, for access to Cork City. Traffic jams are frequent in villages like Killeagh and Castlemartyr, once served by rail.

“Restoring the Midleton to Youghal rail link is core to sustainable development in East Cork,” Cllr Quaide says. “Our population is growing significantly, and our transport system is seized up.” 

But after the Waterford Greenway opened, most local councillors were looking east with euro signs in their eyes, hopeful of a tourism-funded regenerative boost to the area. The greenway won out: the first section of the Youghal-Midleton Greenway has opened between Midleton and Mogeely, with the completion of the full route due in the coming months.

“Whatever would have prioritised the restoration of the rail link would have been my preferred option at the time,” Cllr Quaide says. But he’s not against greenways, and he’s still pushing for rail.

Two recent meetings between councillors and an Irish Rail representative have raised Cllr Quaide’s hopes that all is not lost: it may be possible to re-instate a single-track rail line alongside the greenway, although it would be “more costly and complicated than it would have been if the corridor had been preserved in its entirety.” 

When it comes to the TII’s broader policy of regarding old rail lines as potential greenways, Cllr Quaide says: “I’m sure there are places where it’s justified, but I think we always need to think about the case for restoring rail. That case should not be based solely on existing population, but on projected population. 

One of the arguments against restoring the line to Youghal was that there’s currently a population of about 8,500 and so it was claimed that there isn’t the demand for the service. But obviously when you put in rail, it attracts population density around it, and shapes a much more sustainable and balanced development for the area. 

“So I would be concerned about there being a general trend of developing greenways on old rail lines. It has to be on a case-by-case basis.” 

Work begins on South Kerry greenway 

Although the source of a bitter CPO dispute, works on a stretch of the 27km South Kerry Greenway from Glenbeigh to Cahersiveen along a former railway line on the Ring of Kerry are underway, with 10kms expected to be completed in late 2025.

Kerry County Council has acquired “the majority of the required lands by Compulsory Purchase Order,” with engagement with the remaining landowners ongoing, according to their press representative.

Patrick Kavanagh has a mixed farm overlooking Kells Bay, roughly halfway down the route. He is one of the farmers who had land CPOed for the greenway. With engineering challenges on his stretch, it will be years until the greenway is operational adjacent to his land: works won’t begin on the Kells section until at least 2025.

Although he admits that not all his fellow landowners feel as he does, Mr Kavanagh, who also manages local development group IRD Foilmore-Kells, eagerly anticipates the completion of the greenway.

“There was a railway going through my farm for just under 70 years. It shut down 65 years ago, and the area has never recovered from that,” he says.

“We were taken off the map of Ireland when the railway went. This opportunity of a greenway arose from the farming community wanting to develop something, on the understanding that a railway track would never again be put in place.” 

Mr Kavanagh says the CPO figure for his land was “satisfactory,” but he acknowledges that for other farmers, the greenway route is more inconvenient than it is for him: on his land, the route runs adjacent to the existing road on the Ring of Kerry and so it doesn’t cut across his land but falls near its natural boundary.

“But I think the opportunities and the future development more than outweighs the inconvenience for anyone along the route, although not all will agree,” he says. “There are two sides to every story: there’s the positivity of a whole community of 5,000 people waiting on the sidelines for this proposal to develop, for the opportunity of employment.” 

The Cooley Peninsula: an area of outstanding natural beauty up in arms 

In late August, residents of the Cooley Peninsula delivered 2,300 petition signatures, during a protest at Louth County Council offices, against plans for a Dundalk-Carlingford greenway project which is currently at route option selection phase.

It is intended that this route will link up with the existing Carlingford Lough Greenway between Carlingford and Omeath, and eventually form part of the Great Eastern Greenway, and even connect across the border to Newry in County Down.

Over 1,300 public submissions have been made on the proposal, with residents expressing a variety of concerns, from fear of CPOs, to lack of privacy, to the worry that an increase in short-term holiday lettings in the area will impact on housing availability for locals.

The TII practice of publishing broad route options seems to have caused confusion and upset yet again: on route option maps, a 50m swathe is coloured as potential route to allow for refinement and account for boundaries, despite 5m-10m in width being what is actually needed.

Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1, Anne Carroll, whose family farms sheep in the area, said: “They have a line through the vegetable garden next to my house. What happens to my privacy? I’ve no qualms about a greenway, but putting it through good land? No way.” 

“Louth County Council welcomes this public feedback, as it will be used to assist the design team in determining the Preferred Route Corridor which will be presented at the Third Public Consultation, envisaged to take place later this year,” Louth County Council responded to the protest.

They extended an original deadline for submissions until Friday, September 6: the submissions are currently under review.

Back to the drawing board for Mallow to Dungarvan route 

In June, Cork County Council and Waterford City & County Council announced that they were going to conduct an additional feasibility study into a proposed Mallow to Dungarvan greenway route, in order to broaden the study area.

The local authorities would “use the summer months to take stock of the strategic plan for the project to ensure that it is in the best possible position to progress successfully through the future planning process and onwards to delivery,” they said in a press release.

As with many greenways, the Mallow to Dungarvan route was intended for the old rail line, closed by Irish Rail, then CIE, in 1967.

With several old viaducts and tunnels still present on the route, when the project was first explored in 2021 there were high hopes that it could be as scenic as the Waterford Greenway, as well as connecting with it in Dungarvan to create 120kms of uninterrupted traffic-free route in total.

The TII code of conduct states that “it is anticipated that the use of State-owned lands in conjunction with the lands acquired by Voluntary Agreements will deliver the majority of the lands necessary” for greenways.

But local farmers and a newly formed campaign group, the Dungarvan to Mallow Communities Group, pointed out that 88% of the land required for the Dungarvan to Mallow Greenway was in private ownership: CIE had sold off parcels of land to some farmers and houses, lanes and farm buildings had sprung up in the 50 years since the rail line closed.

This would result in a considerable quantity of CPOs for the local authorities to buy the land back, resulting in a project cost that an independent civil engineer engaged by the campaign group estimated to start at €150 million: more than double the annual TII budget for greenways for the entire country, and almost €2 million for kilometre of greenway.