A boat would not strike one as an essential piece of farm equipment, but for one family in south Galway it certainly is.
"We pulled it out earlier this week," said Mrs Dympna Fahy, glancing at a small fibreglass dinghy tied to a gate across the flooded road, as her four children splashed about in wellingtons outside the door.
Wellingtons wouldn't be much use several feet down the lane, which has been closed, and even waders would be pretty ineffectual. Her husband, Tommy, measured 25 feet of water this week in one of his fields at Grannagh, just off the Ardrahan-Castledaly road.
In 1995 the Fahys had to evacuate their home, built almost 20 years ago, and spent five months in rented accommodation. An aerial newspaper photograph captured their bungalow as a lonely island in a "lake". Although they live near a turlough, they had never experienced anything like the deluge until the first warning in 1990 when water levels rose during heavy winter rain.
Although the situation this week does not appear to be as serious as five years ago, it is threatening to be, Mrs Fahy said.
She still has the photographs of the family in one of two dinghies, which was used for the journey between home and her mother-in-law's house in 1995. "I suppose we could be relying on these again," she said.
