If Ireland s only island cable car is not repaired quickly, cattle on the Dursey face starvation and humans may abandon it for the first time in 420 years, locals have warned.
Martin Sheehan, a third-generation farmer on Dursey, delivered a stark warning this week after a delay in fixing the cable car put a question mark on the habitability of Ireland's most south-westerly island.
The cable car, used to transport people, hay and animal feed and other items, traverses the Dursey Sound, which has strong tides and reefs. Since March, the aerial link has been shut for maintenance, forcing islanders to rely on a ferry service that is subject to weather conditions. It usually does not run in winter.
The sheep can graze on hillsides and survive on their own, unlike the island's 60 cows who will start to calve in the new year, Sheehan told RT They will be on their own and facing starvation that is the reality of the situation. Winter turned the ferry service into a lottery given that there was nothing in front of you but the bare Atlantic he said. That is the last lifeline we have to have a chance of looking after our livestock in the winter. Dursey, four miles long and just over half a mile wide at the tip of the Beara peninsula, used to have three villages: Ballynagallagh, Kilmichael and Tilickafinna, and hundreds of inhabitants.
It has dwindled to around 15 people with holiday homes, five farmers who keep livestock on the island and just two full-time residents who are considering leaving because of the isolation.
It is not good for your mental state apart from the physical side of it. Sheehan said it would test your wellbeing to the limit. Sheehan is a member of the island's development association.
The last time Dursey was uninhabited is believed to have been in 1602 after a massacre by English troops.
Dursey has been called a walkers paradise with nesting colonies of seabirds and the ruins of a Napoleonic signal tower. The outstanding memory for most visitors is how they got there: a 10 minute journey across the open sea, a Guardian travel article said in 2015.
The cable car, opened in 1969, is in need of repairs to its towers. Cork County Council had promised it would resume operations in November, but it said early next year.
The council said repairs were nearly complete and a date for restored services would be confirmed after all components were in place and the Commission for Railways Regulation gave authorisation. The Guardian has asked for comment from Sheehan and the council.