Pedestrians still risking their lives on notorious Kerry road after 50-year struggle – ‘How long do we have to fight?’

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

Three generations of Foleys have campaigned for safer walking access to their local town but after 50 years a solution has yet to be put in place.

Fiola Foley lives only half a kilometre from Killorglin’s County Bridge but between her home and the crossing into town lies around 250m of high-speed road.

The 80mph stretch is witness to locals and tourists alike chancing their luck with traffic day and night. Ms Foley describes summer visitors to the local caravan park walking back up the road in the evening after a few drinks in Killorglin.

Along the N72 east of Killorglin lies over 80 private dwellings as well as Killorglin Holiday Park housing over 600 people during the summer months, and the technology business centre, the RDI Hub.

A long history of tragedy hangs over the narrow stretch, with four pedestrians having been killed along it over the years. It was in the 1970s that Fiola’s grandfather, Liam Foley, first raised concerns about the safety of the road, back when a footpath known locally as ‘Parson’s Walk’ did exist, but had been worn away and absorbed into the road.

Today's News in 90 - Thursday January 15

Following its official removal by Kerry County Council in the mid-80s, Mr Foley wrote again, this time to Kerry TD John O’Leary, expressing fears over pedestrian safety. A council engineer stated in correspondence at the time that they did not have the funds for the project.

Any hope of works lay dormant as four pedestrians were killed and numerous serious road accidents occurred after the path’s removal. Ms Foley’s father, Fergus Foley, was next in line to campaign for funding, heading a deputation of local residents at a Kerry County Council meeting in 2019.

At this point, much of the prior safety precautions had been lifted despite the significant increase. The road speed limit had been reinstated as 80kph, following its downgrade to 50kph, and the once solid white line in the middle of the road had been modified to a dashed line to allow overtaking.

Mr Foley pleaded with the council to revert these changes as a matter of “extreme urgency” while local resident Austin O’Reilly warned the road might soon be named after a nearby hill - Cnoc na Fola (The Hill of the Blood) – as Bothar na Fola (The Road of Blood).

The road remains at present a 80kph zone and is still split by a dashed line.

For Ms Foley, who dreamt of walking her own daughter to school but is forced to drive, said the reason for the continuing saga is inexplicable.

“How long do we have to fight for this,” she said.

“And we’re going backwards. We used to walk and cycle to school. Now we have to fight and fight and fight, to do those things that we’re told that we should be doing, but we can’t do because we don’t have the infrastructure.

“It’s not in the direction we hear all the time about living sustainably, reducing carbon footprint, leading active lifestyles, if it takes 50 or 60 years to get a footpath built to service 300 or 400 people living within three kilometres of a busy town.

“I believe all children should have access to safe infrastructure to be able to walk and ride their bikes. It doesn’t have to happen from their doorstep, but it should be accessible and safe for children and their parents to leave their houses.”

She said the line in the middle of the road has changed from dashed to solid, and back to dashed again, in the last five years, describing the reintroduction of the dashed line as a “scandal”.

There are approximately 28 houses just outside Killorglin, all of which struggle daily to pull out onto a road that is narrow and high speed, and now has the added threat of overtaking traffic.

At present, Kerry County Council has developed a plan for a footpath from Killorglin bridge to the RDI Hub but is awaiting Transport Infrastructure Ireland approval before it can be submitted for funding to An Bord Pleanála.

While the council expect the application to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála by Q1 this year, they had previously said this would be achieved by early 2025.

Meanwhile, other projects on the busy Ring of Kerry road forge ahead, with nearby Fossa receiving an upgraded foot and cycle path where lower speed limits are in place.

Residents along Ms Foley’s stretch of the road can’t help but feel ignored after campaigning for so many years.

“Fossa had cycleways, pedestrians and a speed limit. In the meantime, they’re doing a massive development in Fossa and we’re still where we were,” said resident Austin O’Reilly.

“Theirs gets upgraded while ours doesn’t even get implemented,” added Ms Foley.

“And when they’re prioritising other projects in the county, I’m not saying they don’t deserve them but it’s just exasperating to continue to fight for these basic rights.”

The commitment of the local residents to fighting for safe pedestrian access to Killorglin is perhaps personified in the late Tom Moriarty, who fought for years on the issue and whose prophecy – that he would die before any path was constructed – sadly became true.