A tiny island community is this week coming to terms with the violent undoing of years of hard work on their coastal barriers.
The Howard family, farmers on Claggan Island, off the Erris Peninsula, have won national awards for their efforts fighting a 30-year battle with sea and tides to maintain a vulnerable access point between their island and the mainland.
However, years of toil, shoring up defences and combatting coastal erosion, were undone in one night during the stormy battering inflicted on coastal counties last week.
“To witness what one storm could undo was heartbreaking,” said Ann Howard. “Nature is awesome and beautiful but it is so very destructive too.”
She and her husband Laurence moved to Claggan Island from the UK 33 years ago with their young family to become the fourth generation of Howards to farm on the island.
Access to the island was at that time tidal and severely limited, making life there almost impossibly challenging.
The Howards began the painstaking work of creating coastal defences and building up the tidal causeway which links them to the mainland. They were determined to safeguard their heritage and continue the Howard presence on Claggan.
In September, the Howards celebrated a joyous homecoming. After 10 years in Saudi Arabia, their son Laurence Daniel returned to the island to take up the reins on the family farm and run the Belmullet Coast Guard Station, which has been restored and converted to self-catering accomodation.
“He is starting the fifth generation of Howards here because we have a new baby on the island,” said Ann. “This was a blow for us, and for him, because he could see there are so many challenges ahead.”
During the storm coastal barriers, dunes, and defences were badly damaged and washed away in many places.
The family have been in touch with Mayo County Council about the damage caused.
“Living on Claggan is a challenge at the best of times,” added Ann. “It always will be and we don’t expect that to change but we will keep going to maintain that link for future generations.”
