Inishowen flood victims told to remove belongings

One of Inishowen's August 2017 flood victims has described a letter from Donegal County Council as “an eviction notice”.

Kathleen Molloy, a former resident of Páirc an Ghrianáin in Burnfoot, said the letter, which was signed on behalf of the Area Manager, Housing and Corporate Services, was “extremely condescending”.

On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, Inishowen was devastated by a once-in-one-hundred-years weather event, which lead to severe flooding in the peninsula. As a result of the flooding, Kathleen Molloy and some of her neighbours in Páirc an Ghrianáin were forced to leave their homes, never to return.

Declan and Kathleen Molloy

Speaking to Donegal Live, Ms Molloy said: “At that particular time we were told that everything that was taken out out of our homes would be replaced. Then, in February 2018, we were brought down to the Public Services Centre in Carndonagh and told to empty out the houses because we wouldn't be back in them till the end of that year, at least.

“We refused to do so on the basis that, if Donegal County Council got vacant possession on the houses, it would have meant our tenancies would have been gone. I think that was the last direct communication we had with the Council, until we received this week's letter.

“On April 15, we discovered at the gated area, as the Council calls our homes in Páirc an Ghrianáin, had been double locked, so we had no longer access to the houses.

“Up until then, although there had been a big barrier up around the houses and CCTV, we had still been able to go into the houses.

“On April 29, someone came from the Council and gave me supervised access to the house. That person also told me there would be letters coming from the Council to tell us to empty out the houses.

“This letter arrived on Monday. The main point of the letter I presume is where if says: 'Remedial works to the houses cannot be done until the Council can be reasonably satisfied that a similar severe weather event would not give rise to the houses being flooded.'

“I would dearly like to know where the Council is going to get reasonable satisfaction there will be no more flooding in Inishowen or Burnfoot, ever again?”

Ms Molloy was also told in the letter: 'The Council intends to erect further hoardings to the windows and doors of each property to protect them from possible malicious damage'.

Ms Molloy asked if the Council could not the residents from flooding without a guarantee about the weather, how did it know there was going to be malicious damage done?

“I think the letter is condescending in the first place and it is really an eviction notice.

“Supposing I test positive for Covid-19 on September 22, what happens then because nobody in my household could go to Páirc an Ghrianáin under any circumstances?

“Not one of us has been reimbursed as we were promised in August 2017. It is not even the physical damage of the food, it is the mental stress this whole episode has caused. It might sound very little in comparison to the mica-affected homeowners, but we in Páirc an Ghrianáin lost our homes and our community.

“We were told that everything would be replaced, like for like, which never happened. But there are things that can't be replaced. We were in shock at that time and we should never, ever, ever have let things be taken out of that house. There were things of great sentimental value. Things which could have been properly cleaned. There is no word of redress for any of our suffering or any loss.

“I do not even know who to contact in Donegal County Council because the signature on the letter is indecipherable,” Ms Molloy said.