Galway’s Burning

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This morning.

Firefighters continue to tackle the fire at Cloosh Valley, near Oughterard in Co. Galway.

The Galway Advertiser writes:

“Two helicopters have been operating over the site since Sunday, and are using 1,200 litre capacity ‘bambi buckets’ to drop water to counter the flames…A quarter of the forest’s 4,000 hectare area has already been lost to the fire – or rather 30 individual fires which, together, are causing the extensive damage.

The fire also threatens Galway Wind Park, where the Republic’s biggest wind farm is currently under construction, with two of the 24 turbines erected on the site so far… the exact cause of the fire is not yet known.”

Efforts to fight Galway forest fire continue but extensive damage already caused (The Galway Advertiser)

Photographs taken by Mul Mullarkey via The Galway Advertiser

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58 thoughts on “Galway’s Burning”

  1. Daisy Chainsaw

    These are being deliberately started by farmers. Dept of Agriculture needs to get hardcore and suspend the payments to all farmers in the townland until this arson and vandalism stops.

        1. Cian

          Thanks – so it’s them starting gorse fires on their own land that happens to spread to adjacent Coilte land? Allegedly.

    2. Emer

      Here here. It’s an absolute disgrace what they have done…shame on them. They authorities know who they are. They should be prosecuted angry jailed…they know they consequences of what they have done as it’s happened before. Typical farmers…no f***ing cop on and selfish as usual…

  2. Spaghetti Hoop

    How come nobody is being prosecuted, or at the very least investigated for these fires?

    1. ollie

      How come RTE won’t even mention that they could be started deliberately?
      I suppose they don’t want to alienate the last viewers they have

  3. Murtles

    Massive fires in the last week or so in Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Cork. Can we not have a few days of glorious sunshine without the island spontaneously combusting or is there something more sinister going on that requires people to be put up against a wall and shot with balls of their own sh1te?

  4. bisted

    …used to go to Oughterard for a few days every year to fish the mayfly on Lough Corrib and Mask…you’d scarcely have arrived before you’d hear the corncrake and cuckoo…gone years ago…

  5. Sheik Yahbouti

    Heard a report last night of a family made homeless in Mayo because their house caught fire. Family with three young children. Does someone have to die before anything is done?

    2. Starina

      but the fires just started spontaneously! no farmer can be held accountable. and anyway it’s their fault they live so close to farmland. they’re lucky they didn’t get shot for trespassing when they evacuated.

    3. bdoons

      I know the family well. The fire was started on the 4th day of this hotspell. A constant breeze blew from knock to Kiltimagh direction during these days. Doesn’t take a genius to know that a fire like this was going to get out of control quickly. There is a forest a couple of fields away as well. I hope the guards investigate as you can clearly see the area where the fire originated from.

      2. Sheik Yahbouti

        Well, bdoons, it appears that the likes of me cannot deplore the destruction of a family home (but not a family, thankfully), because that means I’m criticising farmers. A big no no, apparently.

    1. mildred st. meadowlark

      Why do they start the fires?

      I don’t mean to sound ignorant. I just don’t get it.

      2. Sheik Yahbouti

        It clear ground for grazing – so sheep can have a good tuck in. A lot of it is ‘commonage’, ie nobody owns it, nobody’s responsible for it, but the commoners can feed their animals on it for free.

  7. Harry Molloy

    There needs to be investigations and prosecutions if possible, absolutely.

    But it’s absolutely startling how some of the commenters on this thread, who are usually the saviours of the working class and rally against them being painted in any negative light, are more than willing to paint each and every farmer negatively. Comments are in purely general terms with one even suggesting punishing all farmers for the sins of a few!

    What does this tell you? Is it evidence of a love for the “working class” if they are an urban working class only?

    Seems to be evidence of general contempt of our rural citizens to me.

    If it transpires that members from a halting site or a social housing estate are likely to be responsible for some of the fires will it be proposed that social welfare is cut off to those communities until the culprits are identified I wonder?

    A bit of consistency wouldn’t go astray lads, your bias is showing

          2. Janet, I ate my avatar

            I have a huge thing for men on tractors, apropos to nothing really
            but it’s sunny out at last and spring is in the air and it’s that kind of a day

          3. Bertie "the inexplicable pleasure" Blenkinsop

            If we’re doing confessions I have fallen hopelessly in love with Alison O’Reilly on Masterchef.
            Teenager puppy love butterflies in the tummy stuff.

          5. bertie "The Inexplicable Pleasure" blenkinsop

            I can block you on Twitter if it helps ;)

    4. Sheik Yahbouti

      Harry, you’re wrong here. This annual event kills untold wildlife and endangers homes and property. Fires started by “the great unwashed” eg Halloween, receive a lot of coverage and are, rightly, castigated. Deflection on the old urban/rural divide just won’t cut it anymore. Reckless vandalism is just that, no matter who does it.

      1. Harry Molloy

        I don’t know why you say I’m wrong because I agree with everything you say .

        I am objecting to the fact that it appears it’s OK to generalise about farmers here where you would be rightly taken to task if you did so to any other demographic, particularly the more socially deprived.

    5. Murtles

      Sorry Harry but it is mainly farmers that are responsible. Now not every farmer rushes out with flame throwers but burning gorse has been the practice amongst the special few for decades. It’s illegal but the nod and wink brigade say it’s only meant to be done between September and February. However the farmers who engage in this practice tend to liken rain with a shower so they stay away from it and wait till good weather arrives then stand back scratching their big gawky heads when the thing gets out of control and run and hide to the nearest pub for 16 pints and drive straight home after in the Massey F for bacon, cabbage and tay.
      http://www.thejournal.ie/gorse-fire-burning-debate-3352600-Apr2017/

  8. Harry the Horse

    I was walking on Two Rock Mountain one evening last week, and witnessed two separate gorse fires being started on farmland on the hills opposite. It was a very windy evening and either of those fires could have easily got out-of-hand. Had there been a problem, no doubt the farmers would claim innocence and blame “kids with matches” as happened recently in an RTE news report.

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      Harry, no truer word. I’ve hated this for a long time (it’s very prevalent in Wicklow) – Indah and the lads sh!te on about our modern, ‘knowledge’ economy but when it suits we can remain in the bronze age. Strange that!

    2. scottser

      yeah, our local gobsh1te neighbours are quite happy to start gorse fires each year under the electricity pylons. there is not enough facepalm in the world for those idiots.

  9. Peter Dempsey

    @ Harry Molloy
    The anti-farmer generalisations are just more examples of selective outrage. Farmers aren’t on the safe list because many of them are conservative, religious, middle class and traditionally vote FF/FG (and rarely the Greens).
    Their actions in setting these fires are deplorable.

    Your point about the working class and travellers is well made. When you spend a lot of time online, you generally see patterns of condemnation. Liberals / left leaners are usually nowhere to be seen on reports involving rural crime (attacks on the elderly). There was one this week in Roscrea which has rightly been condemned but I haven’t seen any of my liberal friends / acquaintances condemn it on FB. Instead they’re all over white collar crime and tend to only voice an opinion on violent crime if the perpetrator is considered privileged. In such instances you hear statements like ‘money talks’ while simultaneously ignoring the reality that light or suspended sentences are common across all social classes (Mr A had 266 previous convictions etc).

        1. Lord Snowflakee

          I’m trying to figure out what kind of snowflake Peter is. They don’t have a category for him yet I think.

          2. Lord Snowflakee

            I’m serious man.

            I mean he’s outraged that the outraged are not outraged all the time or are not outraged about the “right” things? I mean, that’s it, right?

            His core sample consists of his “liberal friends” and other people he clearly considers retards on facebook, I’m guessing it’s mainly probably his brother’s ex from that one mad night out at the office party and a few of her friends…

            I love the way he’s ‘monitoring’ them on social media though, gotta love his perpsicacity

            dare I say it it doesn’t sound like the most robust statistical model

          3. Sheik Yahbouti

            That sounds ominously creepy. I’m concerned for these young women. Leave them alone, Petey

        2. Harry Molloy

          Do you want foam for your cappuccino anymore? cos we can shut that poo off

  10. Clampers Outside

    ….we didn’t start the fire, nan-a nan nana-a, no, we didn’t start the fire, but we’re gonna fight it… nan-a nan nana-a….

    I’ll get me coat

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