Public meeting to seek views on campaign for the Gearagh to become national park 

THE Gearagh river delta near Macroom could attract multimillion-euro investment, eco-tourists from around the world, and become Cork’s first national park if the campaign of an aspiring Green Party candidate for Cork County Council and a Macroom-based author and environmental activist gains public support.

Green Party local election candidate Harriet Burgess, who is standing in the Macroom electoral area in the June elections, and Kevin Corcoran, the author of Saving Eden —The Gearagh and Irish Nature, a book which argued that the river flood plain outside the town needed protection, will be speaking at a public meeting to be held on Saturday, February 24, in the Kilmurry Independence Museum.

According to Ms Burgess, the campaign to add the Gearagh to Ireland’s six existing national parks has already attracted the interest of her party leader and Environment Minister Eamon Ryan and now she’s hoping to get public support for the proposal.

Public talk

“What the talk is about is to see what the public and those living locally around Macroom and the Gearagh area think about this idea,” said Ms. Burgess, adding that there were a number of issues which were obvious as they looked at the Gearagh, parts of which are accessible by a pathway at present.

“The lack of access is problematic, it’s extremely difficult to access the walkway that is at the Gearagh now and there’s no public walkway between Macroom and the Gearagh – that’s an immediate action the Council could look at.”

The candidate’s own research about the status of inland river deltas like the Gearagh internationally pointed to much greater protection being given by national governments to these areas because of their extreme rarity in scientific terms.

“I’ve looked at other river deltas across the world like, for example, the Okavango River delta in Botswana and others — first of all it’s noted across all the scientific measures that it’s an extremely rare river formation and the Gearagh itself is extremely rare, a formation from the ice age which is spectacular scientifically and in many other ways.

“When you look internationally, most of the inland river deltas are protected by specific pieces of national legislation and depending on where the country is, they’re massive tourist destinations — the Okavango River Delta in Botswana is a huge eco-tourist destination for safari-goers.

“I think something we should explore as a community is [if] the protection the Gearagh is being afforded at the moment adequate.”

'Unique opportunity'

The Green Party candidate also pointed out that there was a unique opportunity now, since the last budget when a Climate and Nature Fund of €3.1bn had been created, and that a proposal to create a national park in the Gearagh would have enormous potential.

“There’s so many different things that it could do for the area — tourism is one thing, for the local town of Macroom and Cork City, the potential of Cork having its first national park could be incredible.”

Ireland’s six existing national parks are in Killarney, the Burren, Connemara, the Wild Nephin in Mayo, Glenveagh, Co Donegal, and the Wicklow Mountains.