How to bypass the bypass

THE TOWNS and villages were like markers on the road to urbanity, to the big smoke and to a certain freedom that comes with the anonymity of a large city. These towns and villages were also repositories of memories, stop-off points on family trips, places where departed loved ones still live, perhaps, in a subconscious half-world between our memory and real life.

Maybe Fermoy was where your mother held your hair back when you felt ill at the side of the road. Cashel, where you once stopped and had tea and scones as you made your way to the funeral of an uncle in Dún Laoghaire. Horse and Jockey, where you and your father bought a puppy from the back of a trailer in a car park on the way back from an All-Ireland semi-final.

These places between Cork and Dublin were, to borrow a phrase from poet John Montague, like dolmens round our childhood – Rathcormac, Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Horse and Jockey, Cashel, Cahir, Johnstown, Portlaoise, Monasterevin, Abbeyleix, Durrow – each town triggering memories: a bag of chips, some place of interest, or a phrase or saying a family member always recited when you passed a particular point.

Along the route, businesses thrived on the passing trade – garages, garden centres, roadside diners and cafes, children’s playgrounds, 10-pence toilets. But this road was abandoned in stages over the past decade as new stretches were opened by local politicians, until the final part of the new motorway from Cork to Dublin was finally put in place last year. The towns and villages were bypassed and the businesses and people along them left largely to fend for themselves. Some had time to get ready; for others, nothing could prepare them for the transition.

For 16 years Pat O’Callaghan ran a petrol station on the road between Fermoy and Mitchelstown. Just before the new road opened, O’Callaghan managed to get out of the business. He was one of the lucky ones.

“We were doing 100,000 litres a week before the bypass about six years ago,” O’Callaghan says. “First, there was a small ring road built and our business dropped to about 70,000 litres a week. When the big bypass came, that dropped further to somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 litres. The volume of traffic was gone.”

The O’Callaghans also own and run a deli and restaurant, on the main street in Mitchelstown, which has been in existence for more than two decades.

One of the main arguments put forward in favour of bypassing towns was that the traffic jams that clogged up their centres would be eliminated and this would encourage more locals to shop and socialise locally. This has yet to happen in Mitchelstown.

“We used to have a huge passing trade from people going to take the boat in Cork on a Saturday,” says Pat O’Callaghan. “They’d hit us for lunch en route to the 5pm sailing. That passing trade is non-existent now and we hardly saw a tourist this year. In the last three or four years, my turnover here has dropped from €1.5 million to €1 million per annum.”

He says the fall-off in business since the motorway opened was itself bad enough, but combined with the economic downturn, it has had a devastating effect on many towns that formerly were bustling hubs.

“I had growth every year for about 20 years and in the last four years it has gone backwards. We had grown this business day and night, and like many towns along this road, it was mainly footfall that gave us our business.”

The morning we meet, for example, is the first day of the National Ploughing Championships. “We always got a spin-off for breakfast from it. You wouldn’t even know it was on today. They’re just not coming off the new road.”

The “new road” is the new M8 motorway, which will now get you from Cork to Dublin in two-and-a-half hours. There’s a toll outside Fermoy and another one near Portlaoise, but apart from that there is no designated stop-off point and hardly a building of note from Rathcormac to the Red Cow junction in Dublin. In recent months, the first purpose-built service stop on the route was opened at Junction 14, Mayfield.

LAST WEEK, WHENI visited the service station on a Thursday morning, the 12 petrol bays seemed constantly busy, while large overflow car parks catered for tractors, trucks and people looking for a quick pit-stop without the hassle of having to find parking.

Inside is a fast-food counter, a convenience supermarket and a coffee outlet with clean toilets, free Wi-Fi and dog-eared newspapers on the back of screwed-down plastic chairs. It took me seven minutes to stop, use the bathroom, get petrol and grab a takeaway coffee.

What this means is that if I leave Cork at 10am, I can stop, have a coffee, and still be in Dublin in time for lunch. It’s that very convenience for motorists that is causing problems for towns along the old Cork-Dublin route, and it seems, no matter how hard they try to attract them back, motorists are not for turning.

“We have signs on the roads encouraging people to come in and spend here [in Mitchelstown] and saying there are places to eat and drink. But not enough of them are stopping,” says O’Callaghan. “The new road is very convenient. We don’t go to Dublin that often but when we do, to be honest with you, we take the new road.”

During the pre-motorway days, the town of Abbeyleix was a popular place for a pit-stop. You’d always get a decent bag of chips in Macari’s on the main street and Morrissey’s bar was a famous stop-off point, and one of the few genuinely traditional Irish pubs left.

On the edge of town, Quinn’s Tea Rooms is a family business well known in the area. Set up by the current owner’s parents about 28 years ago, it specialises in home cooking. Marie Quinn says that while business was certainly affected by the opening of the bypass, it’s not all gloom. There are signs the town is beginning to regain some of its lost trade and it could serve as an example to others in a similar situation.

“We do notice a bit of an upsurge in recent months. We’d like to think it’s because of the town and the quality of the food, and that people come here because of friendly faces,” she says. “Signage is a huge issue, though. My sister came from London into Shannon and she came up the motorway and could not see any sign for Abbeyleix. A tourist on the route would struggle to find us.”

Another business that has been affected is the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, located right on the former Cork to Dublin road.

Owner Jenny Kent says: “We went from a situation where we had 15,000 to 20,000 cars passing every day to a situation where you just don’t know. We have had to change our business. We’re looking for more local trade for weddings and community events. You learn more when times are tough.”

Part of the solution for bypassed towns might be greater cohesion and local co-operation. To this end, a business and community forum has been set up in Abbeyleix, with local architect Brian Maher helping to facilitate groups and individuals to share their experience.

Now businesses are willing to listen to new ideas, and there is a sense that anything is possible – and a willingness to support local initiatives. A number of new IT businesses have been started in the town, for example, some operating out of disused rooms in the local museum.

Pat Kennedy, of E-Tender Solutions, says: “The bypass opened up ideas and ensured people were not stuck in their ways. A lot of people are not passing by the door of the museum, and they were open to the idea of us using part of the building as a base.”

Easy access to Dublin via the new motorway has actually helped some new IT businesses in the town. Cian Prendergast of Ortus Technology and Kieran Kelly of Custom IT both say they can reach the edge of the M50 as quickly as a business based in Dublin city centre.

So, not everyone is hurting from the motorway, and what is striking about Abbeyleix is the relatively few empty businesses in the town centre. New annual festivals have sprung up and there are plans to turn bog land on the edge of town into public spaces. Key to galvanising the community has been the setting up of a town website. The hope is that by building a strong online presence, Abbeyleix can attract enough virtual traffic to keep itself commercially viable and, if you like, bypass the bypass.

The road user

Jeanie McDonald, a regular commuter on the Dublin-Cork route says: "I am from Cork and have been working in Dublin since before the motorway was built. The journey used to take me four or five hours on a Friday. Now, it takes two hours and 15 minutes door-to-door.

“Before the motorway, you could be stuck in a place like Monasterevin for 45 minutes alone. I used to stop in certain places, like Josephine’s shop in Urlingford. The odd time now, I’d come off the motorway and stop there, just out of habit. Over the years I learned a short-cut or two around the back of many towns, such as Abbeyleix.

“The new road is monotonous. I used to stop on Sunday nights and buy coal or milk, but I don’t bother anymore. I know there is a new place in Cashel but I only stopped there once. You don’t need to now, unless you need to get petrol. I am over the moon as it has cut two hours off my journey on a Friday after working a long week. I have a Friday night now, whereas before you’d arrive home at 11pm and go straight to bed. Now I can stay in Cork until 9pm on a Sunday and drive up and hop into bed or go out. It gives you an extra night on either side.

“I have sympathy for businesses on the old road, as no one likes to see businesses going down. A lot of it is down to access. If there was better access nearer the towns then you would go into them. Whereas now, you fill up in advance and that’s it: you don’t stop until you hit Dublin.”