Northern Assembly deal could prove game-changer for north Leitrim

The restoration of the Stormont power-sharing executive over the weekend is a welcome and long overdue development.
For three years the politicians of the North have played cavalier with the lives of people living in an already challenging post-conflict landscape, allowing ego and obstinance overrule the doctrines of democracy. Researchers such as Unesco chair holder Prof Pat Dolan of NUIG indicated that the vacuum was leading to the recruitment of young people into dissident causes (exacerbated by the possibility of a hard border due to Brexit).
The impasse led to a crippling of the structures of the state, statutory bodies, and many services, evident in the nurses’ strike and a teachers’ industrial dispute. In 2017 Northern Ireland had 305 suicides – a rate that is double that of the Republic (per capita).
In the world, everything has changed and nothing has changed in the interim three years. In equal terms both oblivious to and fully aware of this, when it suited the politicians a solution could be found within days.
Had they wanted, the same result could have been reached shortly after Stormont's Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister, the late Martin McGuinness, quit the power-sharing arrangement, citing the DUP First Minister Arlene Foster's botched handling of the now notorious Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.
A three-year impasse over a green energy scheme and a dispute over an Irish language Act: imagine if the possibility of a united Ireland were ever to require genuine discussion and negotiation – how could we possibly hope for this executive to navigate a way through such unchartered waters? A line has been drawn in the sand that they must never again cross.
Naturally, any deal was going to involve significant sweeteners. In the mix is a suggestion that Leitrim could benefit from a proposed major investment in the Sligo-Enniskillen Greenway. The text of the deal, called ‘New Decade New Approach’, highlights upcoming cross-border investment including a commitment to the greenway project. (The proposed 74km SLNCR greenway is to run along the former Northern railway from Sligo through counties Leitrim and Cavan into Enniskillen. A costing suggested a very conservative estimate of €11 million to complete the project over the next seven years. Expect that to double at least.)
Such inducements offer the opportunity for politicians to claim some credit. But the people who deserve credit should the greenway ever come to fruition are the community activists that have been working tirelessly on this project for years. Their shoulder was to the wheel when there was no light being shone on the border region and their calls for funding was falling largely on deaf ears.
Now, thankfully, it appears their hard work is starting to pay off. Its potential has been recognised and Leitrim and Sligo County Councils and Fermanagh and Omagh District councils are backing the project (largely inspired, no doubt, by the success of similar projects in Mayo and Waterford).
According to Leitrim County Council's cost benefit analysis, the finished greenway will result in an economic boost in the region of €7 million locally in the first year of opening. It suggests the potential for the creation of 227 full time jobs in the area as well as 100 jobs during its construction. New CEO of Leitrim Co Co, Lar Power, has made it a high priority and, to be fair, his team has been working hard to support the voluntary community effort.
The opening in March of a demonstration stretch from Cornacloy to Sradrine near Glenfarne was a small but significant step. The December meeting of the voluntary Leitrim Recreational Forum (the first under the new chair Mike Feeney who replaced the outgoing Padraic White) noted that LEADER funding was approved for the Manorhamilton demonstration stretch with the local community group hoping to have the contractor on site soon.
There has also been movement on the Dromahair demonstration stretch. The Abbey Loop was the first section of the proposed greenway opened to the public. The charming 5km loop links the original line at Edergole Cottage, through Bábhún (Bawn), An Chraobh Liath (Creevelea) along the Bonet and into Dromahair itself, and back out to the Railway Station. The bridge over the river Bonet near the clubhouse is now near completion.
It was suggested at the meeting that councillors, community representatives, landowners and agencies should be invited to Dromahair to see first-hand what the community has achieved. I recommend that everyone in Leitrim make the effort to experience these demonstration stretches.
On a less positive note, the meeting also recorded that the applications for both greenways in Leitrim for preliminary predevelopment funding (the costs for full detailed design, appropriate assessment, planning, etc.) were not successful. Leitrim County Council is the lead partner on the SLNCR and Cavan County Council on the Cavan Leitrim Greenway. They are fighting a battle to draw significant funding to a long-neglected region.
While Minister for Transport and Sport, Shane Ross, attended the opening of the Glenfarne stretch (as did Arlene Foster) he continues to promote and favour ‘shovel ready’ projects. Getting to such a stage requires access to enormous funding – amounts far beyond Leitrim County Council’s capacity. Joseph Gilhooly, Director of Economic Development, Planning and Infrastructural Services with Leitrim Co Co highlighted to the Forum the need for political pressure to be exerted to progress Leitrim’s funding chances. We all can play a part in this by lobbying our local and national representatives to ensure that the full SNLCR Greenway is brought to fruition as per the commitments in the ‘New Decade New Approach’ agreement. This must happen.
The Leitrim Recreational Forum also heard of the possibility of cross border funding through INTERREG or PEACE, with the huge caveat of Brexit attached.
The Stormont developments over the weekend now bring with them the possibility of real progress, as long the accompanying announcements prove to be more than mere political promises.
Of course, the SLNCR community group will continue their work behind the scenes, and Rosemary Kerrigan assured the forum that they will continue to liaise with landowners and maintain with them an open dialogue. She reported that to date landowners have been very cooperative and it is important to keep this momentum going. Strip back any negotiations, be they about restoring power-sharing in a post-conflict, religiously divided (and disputed) country, or opening dialogue about the potential use of land for a scheme that could help economically transform one of the most neglected parts of the country, and at their heart must be trust, a willingness to compromise, and some shared vision for the future.
Here’s hoping that all political parties in the North recognise that and take their lead from community groups both sides of the border that have for years been working quietly towards that end.
Liatroim abú.