Extent of damage to Clanrye River wall unveiled as flood water recedes

The sheer extent of the damage caused by last week's heavy rain to the Clanrye River wall behind Newry Town Hall is brutally apparent, following the reduction in level of the river as flood water moves on out to sea. A substantial section of the wall collapsed on Halloween, 31 October after the river level had become severly raised following a night of incessant rain which followed in turn a year which has seen large levels of water saturate the ground.

Judging by our video which we published on the Newry.ie Facebook at 10am, 31 October we know the wall was breached at some stage before this. Once the wall collapsed water was able to freely enter Newry Canal from the river at this point contributing to rising water that had already begun flooding Merchant's Quay after the breaching of sandbags at the Sugar Island pedestrian crossing at 7.30am that morning. It seems that a person had been living in a tent on the site of the collapse.

To say that Newry Canal burst its banks, like much of the media have stated is probably too simplistic as it was the Clanrye River that overflowed its banks further down the Newry Canal towpath, a full day earlier (before 7.30am on Monday 30 October) that led to its water flowing into the Canal, which at that point was at a lower level than the river. This coupled with incessant heavy rain and the wall collapse behind the Town Hall contributed to to unprecedented flooding in the Sugar Island and Merchants Quay areas as well as flooding at Carnbane.

Newry.ie have asked the DfI if the wall repair is their responsibility and if so what their intentions are in the short term regarding its repair.