When John Mannion relocated from Dublin to Co Galway 26 years ago, he settled in Na Forbacha.
The Galway City native from Dangan felt the coastal Connemara Gaeltacht village was “in the sticks” back then but he bought a house at Stripe, Furbo expecting it would be connected by a ring road – or bypass – within five years.
“Twenty-six years later, we’re still waiting,” said Mannion, an AI businessman.
He has welcomed confirmation on Monday that cycling campaigner Shane Foran withdrew his High Court challenge to the N6 Galway City Ring Road. This paves the way for construction to start “by 2028 at the latest”, according to Minister of State Seán Canney.
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“An entire generation has grown up while Galway has been left to choke on its own traffic,” Mannion said.
Offaly native Kevin Feighery lives in Coolough, Menlo, in a house that was to be compulsorily purchased to make way for one of the original road routes, and which is located beside a proposed viaduct to be built as part of the current plans.
“I support the road. It’s not a panacea for all of Galway’s gridlock but is a crucial part of that solution,” he said.
Simon Comer, an active travel campaigner in Knocknacarra, doesn’t agree; he believes the road is “building the wrong future” and “is the wrong answer to Galway’s transport problems”.
“It commits enormous public resources to expanding road capacity, reinforces dependence on private cars and will increase both traffic volume and carbon emissions,” he said of the estimated €1 billion project.
Comer said RTÉ reported in 1987 at the opening of Galway’s first ring road that it would cut cross-city journey times by 20 minutes.
“Yet as early as 1992, complaints about traffic congestion once again appeared in the local press. The lesson was not that Galway needed an even bigger ring road. It was that building more road capacity does not provide a lasting solution to the underlying problem.”
For two decades, decision makers focused on the ring road, while ignoring other solutions such as cross-city bus services and light rail (a ‘Gluas’), according to road safety advocate and Salthill resident Gráinne Faller.
“I want BusConnects, a Gluas, proper accessible footpaths, zebra crossings and protected bike infrastructure. All of those things encourage people to leave their cars at home. That is the solution to Galway’s traffic problem,” she said.
Solicitor Bríd Tierney said the new road will “ruin the city” without solving school-related traffic. “When schools are closed there is no traffic congestion,” she said. Tierney also objects “to forcing families out of their homes” – a reference to the 54 homeowners whose properties will be acquired to make way for the road.
Renmore resident Claire Hillery, a Green Party candidate in the 2019 local elections to Galway City Council, cycles 50km a week to work in Medtronic. New cycle lanes in Ballybane improved the commute but cycling remains “dangerous” and she regularly experiences near misses on her bike. She said Galway requires a mindset change.
“They’re focused on how to get cars from one side of the city to the other, not how to get people from one side to the other,” she said.
Siobhán Gaughan, a clerical worker at University Hospital Galway, hopes the ring road will reduce her commute to work. If Gaughan leaves her home in Cregmore near Claregalway at 6.30am, she will reach UHG – 15km away – before 7am. A later departure means she could be stuck in traffic for 90 minutes, “on a bad day, which is very often”.
The mother of three children aged under four said: “Sitting in traffic twice a day when you have young children at home is especially exasperating.”
Gaughan’s experience reflects that of many workers who commute to the city.
Project co-ordinator Fiona Buckley lives in Oranmore, and works in construction in Letteragh, near Westside. Offpeak, her commute is 25 minutes, but she regularly spends 2½ hours in her car every day. “It is not good for my mental health. It is very costly,” she said.
A secondary schoolteacher in Galway City, Elaine Dobbyn lives in Furbo, close to the exit of the proposed ring road. She said Galway’s roads are so clogged with traffic that a car crash “can shut down traffic all over town, delaying people by hours”.
“We’re all experts in back roads and rat runs in Galway.”
Hillwalker Garrett Dundon from Castleconnell, Co Limerick said it is easier to access the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks or Dingle Peninsula in Kerry than the Twelve Bens or Maamturks in Connemara because of Galway’s “nightmare” bottleneck.
“The hostelries of Clifden, Roundstone and Letterfrack will see an upturn in business when the road is completed,” predicted Dundon.
Retired salesman Gerry Leonard, who lives in Cregmore, said traffic congestion deters him from walking the Salthill Prom because it takes too long to get there. “It’s a nightmare,” he said.
Headford resident Dee Moylan said the final six kilometres of her 30km commute to work in Dangan IDA business park, west of the city, “could take an hour” in bumper-to-bumper traffic. “It’s soul-destroying; it sucks the life out of you,” she said, adding there is no public transport alternative.
Dún Laoghaire resident Stephen Keegan quoted Gluas research that projected 26,000 passengers a day would use Galway’s proposed light rail system, a project that some people believe would have a greater impact on congestion than the road.
“A light rail line in a major Irish city outside Dublin would set the standard for the rest of the country and prove that we can solve congestion by giving people a better option, not just more road,” he said.
Rahoon Road resident Oisín Ó Nidh commutes to work in Parkmore by bicycle. He said improved bus links have resulted in fewer people cycling to the industrial estate but there are still not enough bus priority measures.
Ó Nidh fears the ring road will feed into a saturated city road system and could become a “transport failure” and “clog up” at peak hours like Dublin’s M50.
After three decades of false dawns, planning delays and legal challenges to the road, Oranmore resident Dan Folan from Indreabhán – like many Galwegians – is sceptical about this week’s news that the road could finally be built. “I won’t believe it until I’m driving on it.”
