THE sand has never been so scarce on Kilkee’s famous strand, according to Mayor Paddy Collins, who has also warned that the town’s luck will run out unless the seawall is maintained.
“Sand levels at the moment in Kilkee have never been as low. Whether that sand is all pooled out in the middle of the bay and is going to come in on the next big tide, we don’t know,” Councillor Collins said at Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council.
“At a meeting we had here with Paul Moroney [environment section Clare County Council], we were talking about the sand shifting,” he added.
Kilkee beach is hemmed in at either side by spectacular cliffs. The town mayor said Kilkee escaped the worst of the recent flooding in West Clare but said consistent high tides are a persistent threat.
“We were very lucky in the storm. We were only an hour either side when the wind turned. Every tide this year has been a high tide. Every tide has been over 5m and some months we have had three 5m tides in one month,” he revealed before offering an explanation.
“It seems we’re at the end of a 19-year cycle of the moon, which brings continuous high tides,” he explained before underlining the importance of ensuring that the historic seawall is kept in good condition.
“The seawall is dangerously exposed at the moment. There’s no point in celebrating the Famine last year and then neglecting one of the biggest structures built in Kilkee during that time. We need to mind it, to mind the town. That’s why it’s important that a survey needs to be done on the seawall to highlight anywhere it could be undermined,” Councillor Collins stressed.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.