Cork Views: 'Places like Murphy’s Rock are becoming rarer...the road plans should be rejected'

The recent publication of the ‘emerging’ preferred route for the new Cork Northern Distributor Road has generated relatively little public debate.

Evidence from the Bus Connects public consultations of recent years would suggest that there are areas of the city where public consultation is entered into with gusto, whereas in other parts of Cork city, there is a less enthusiastic response.

Perhaps the citizens of the northside of Cork city, with some justification, expect this project to go the way of other promises made to the northside which have not been delivered or have been put on the (very) long finger. For example, having grown up in Blackpool, the promise of a reopened Blackpool/Kilbarry train station has been doing the rounds since I was in short tros. It is still promised at regular intervals. Still not delivered.

In truth, making a submission to these important public consultations is relatively painless and can make a difference, co-creating a better solution for everyone. I would urge readers to take a look at the proposed route of the Cork Northern Distributor Road and consider making a submission. You can view the plans and make a submission (before the April 10 deadline) at www.cndmrpublicconsultation.ie

One element of the proposals I will certainly be mentioning in my own submission is the current plan to build the road over Murphy’s Rock. For many readers of The Echo, there will be no need for me to introduce Murphy’s Rock or, as the Cork actor and comedian Niall Tóibín used to refer to it as, ‘the Riviera of Cork’. It may be worth describing it though, for those of you unfortunate not to have experienced its charms.

Murphy’s Rock, to my mind, encapsulates a stretch of the Glennamought River valley from Glennamought Bridge on the Old Whitechurch Road to where the river es under the Kilcully Road. A distance of approximately 1,300 metres.

Old maps indicate the presence of two corn mills in the valley - one at either end of Murphy’s Rock proper. There is no doubt the area has been used for recreation for generations.

One report from the then Cork Examiner in 1918 details the holding of a prohibited aeridheacht (public gathering) at the site to promote the Irish language and the activities of the Gaelic League. It was noted that the attendees “near Murphy’s Rock, entered a secluded field near a mill, where stood a natural stage and other numerous attractions that lent an air of romance to the whole affair... Not more than a few hundred persons were present at first, but from now on, in a great stream, crowds flocked to the scene, till within an hour the little glen was swarming with people”. The event eventually ed off without incident.

Denis P. Long, writing in this publication in 1970, describes how Murphy’s Rock will “awaken in the northside folk many happy memories. For it is here in this place when the long hot summer days were to hand, they sported and played and swam in the pools and basked in the glorious sunshine”.

As far back as the early 1980s (perhaps earlier) there have been calls to protect the area and to sensitively develop it into a public green space. 

It’s very welcome, then, to see the Glennamought River Valley Park Project is included in the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) with a view to establishing Murphy’s Rock as “a key green and blue infrastructure asset by safeguarding and enhancing its function as a linear wildlife corridor and riverside amenity. Development in this area shall safeguard access to the riverside, protect biodiversity and preserve this ecological and visually sensitive asset”.

There seems little prospect of safeguarding this site of cultural and environmental importance with a large road looming over the top of it. 

The infrastructure required to cross from one side of the valley to the other would have a significant impact on Murphy’s Rock and the Glennamought River valley during its construction and would continue to have an impact on the usefulness of the location as public open space into the future.

During recent Bus Connects consultations, there was widespread criticism and objections to a new road bridge being built over Ballybrack Woods in Douglas. Many pointed out that the idea of having a vehicular bridge looming over a public park was a less than desirable outcome and that one of the key benefits of public green spaces, the opportunity to interact peacefully with the natural environment, would immediately be lost. Along with the very significant negative effects of building such a necessarily massive piece of infrastructure this proposal would have, the planners should carefully consider the impacts of these new proposals on Murphy’s Rock.

Places like Murphy’s Rock are becoming rarer and rarer. Here we have a natural space, full of biodiversity, in public ownership and in close proximity to a part of the city which is already desperately under-served in of public green spaces. Murphy’s Rock is an opportunity to sensitively develop this resource for the benefit of all.

The current proposal to build a road over this seems completely at odds with the stated aim of the Cork City Development Plan.

Given the rich cultural and social importance of Murphy’s Rock to generations of Cork people, the proposal to drive this new road across the Glennamought valley and ‘Cork’s Riviera’ should be rejected outright.