Skibbereen Town Manager Moira Murrell through Town Engineer, James Dwyer have given RIPPLE permission to go ahead with development of the Chapel Quay area as the first positive steps in the restoration of the quays of the town. For those that may be unfamiliar with the exact location of the Chapel Quay, it is located behind the Library (old Bishop Kelly Memorial institute, Technical School) at North Street.

The RIPPLE committee have agreed that the Chapel Quay should be restored to its original appearance in the early nineteen hundreds as per photos in our photo gallery on this site. Our Engineering Consultants, Cronin Miller, also feel that this would be more appropriate than to put a modern structure in its place. We will in the coming weeks, apply for whatever planning permissions are required in order to carry out this restoration which will have to take modern health and safety considerations into account and also regulations governing certain marine matters.

The committee are very grateful that we have been given permission to go ahead with this as we have all been frustrated by an inability to progress this type of development up to now. We are also delighted to see that the long awaited sewerage system for the town is also well underway and that the return of the River Ilen and Caol Stream to pristine condition is a little nearer as a result. The only downside is that the Marsh area, where we hope to develop walkways and cyclepaths in the future is currently out of bounds due to the fact that Ward and Burke, the contractors are using the entire area as their base in addition to many of the component structures of the sewerage system are located there.

Now, more than ever, RIPPLE is in need of funds to progress our plans and appeal to you to subscribe to this work through our Pay Pal facility on the home page. Any and every donation big or small, will be greatly appreciated.

Inishbeg Event

Mr Paul Keane of InishBeg House  Inishbeg, Baltimore has kindly offered RIPPLE the use of his property during the coming Summer to host a fundraising event. It has not yet been decided what type of an event would best suit this fabulous location but we are very grateful to Paul and Georgina for their generous offer. If you our visitor to this site have any ideas or indeed wish to participate in the event, please contact one of the committee or contact us through the email facility on this site or through our forum.

While we are on the subject of the forum, we would still love to hear your ideas on how RIPPLE should improve our town and in particular the River Ilen, Caol Stream and Marsh area. All reasonable ideas will be given serious consideration by the committeeand our engineers.

Bridge Damage

Brief update on the Bridge damage. Ward & Burke, true to their word, are making great progress in rebuilding the Bridge and repairing and renewing other properties that were damaged by the ongoing sewage works in the town. They have removed & numbered all of the key stones that formed the arch of the bridge and have placed five preformed arches to replace the damaged section. When they have finished the main structural work, the key stones will be replaced in their original positions and the bridge will appear as it was before the damage.

One of the good points of the story is that much of the work of restoring the bridge and steps that RIPPLE were prepared to undertake will now be done as part of this repair and restoration. It is surely an ill wind - - -