Today Collooney, tomorrow the Curlew mountains. Thanks to EU funding, some of the most scenic parts of the Dublin-Sligo road will soon vanish as swathes of motorway chew up the north-west.
This morning, Collooney village earns its "by-pass" badge as the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, opens 8.5 kilometres of dual carriageway, costing £30 million. Not everyone will be cheering, however. Though he isn't critical of the by-pass, the Green Party's Connacht-Ulster transport spokesman, Mr Wilhelm Bodewigs, believes there are better ways of spending EU structural funds.
"Of course, Collooney and Ballisodare need traffic-calming measures," says Mr Bodewigs. "I am happy with the new by-pass but a single-lane carriageway would have done the job." He believes £10 million could have been saved, which could have been put to improving public transport links.
Mr Bodewigs, a German town planner who runs an ecological construction company on the Sligo-Leitrim border, is a firm advocate of rail. He supports the campaign to reopen the SligoClaremorris railway line and believes the Luas light rail concept could and should be applied to regional towns like Sligo, which has horrendous traffic problems.
The Western Inter-County Railway Committee, representing five county councils in Connacht, has been engaged in a long campaign to restore the CollooneyClaremorris railway line as part of the Sligo-Limerick route. The line has been closed to passenger traffic since 1963 and to freight since 1975.
The committee has published two studies in support of its case and estimates that reopening the link for freight would cost £8 million. It says the cost of restoring it to passenger status is modest compared to the bill for a few kilometres of road.
There is another dimension to this motorway madness, according to Mr Bodewigs, also a member of the Sligo Chamber of Commerce. The dual carriageway bypassing Collooney will increase pressure on Sligo, thus forcing through plans for the controversial Mid-Block road.
In September 1995 local politicians voted for the construction of the four-lane national road. Mr Bodewigs claims the proposed route would tear the heart out of Sligo town. He says it would cut off the railway and bus station and require the demolition of 59 town houses.
He believes the National Roads Authority (NRA) is "out of control", and there is no co-ordination of investment plans with CIE. Regional light rail networks and the redevelopment of the SligoLimerick railway line would have enormous political impact and revitalise the West.
He says rail access across the Border to Enniskillen, Omagh and Derry, with a link to the Belfast line, should also be examined.
Mr Bodewigs hopes to put his case at the Luas inquiry but fears that some environmentalists have already decided to abandon railways. "There is a view that lines should become tourism assets only; turning them into bicycle tracks and linear parks, with no public benefit."
In Connemara, meanwhile, there has been a welcome for the recent announcement by Mr Dempsey's junior partner, Mr Bobby Molloy, that £1.3 million is to be spent on the GalwayClifden-Leenane road. It is the only route in the Gaeltacht which has national status and so qualifies for the funding recently announced by the NRA.
Significantly, a Galway county councillor, Ms Connie Ni Fhatharta, has also been appointed to the NRA. Observers believe she will put the case for Connemara's roads.
