Virus impacts on lakeside towns as tourism is stalled

Apart from the sound of a high-speed garda patrol boat, Lough Derg has been quiet since the end of last week in an ominous sign for the many businesses and communities all along the 40km of the lake's shoreline who depend on tourism for their livelihoods.
All fishing and boating on the lake has been stopped as part of last week's intensification of Covid-19 restrictions and the RNLI and the Coastguard have asked the public not to take part in water-based activities while the restrictions remain.
The garda high-speed RIB launched in Terryglass on Thursday last and travelled the length of the lake, reminding anglers and boaters that they had to remove their craft from the waterway to comply with the restrictions. The garda boat has since been spotted on a frequent basis conducting patrols of the lake.
Locals in the lakeside beauty spots of Ballina-Killaloe, Garrykennedy, Dromineer and Terryglass all reported that visitors, in general, stayed away over the Easter and mostly abided by the restrictions. Further up the Shannon there were, however, reports of a noticeable increase in visitors from the east of the country arriving in Portumna.
Garda checkpoints were stepped up throughout Tipperary over the weekend. At one busy checkpoint between Ballina and Birdhill, gardaí turned away a number of motorists who were destined for the lakeside setting of Ballina/Killaloe without essential reason. Gardaí also encountered people who were travelling from the Ballina/Killaloe area to Limerick to go shopping; these people were also requested to turn back. While there are no reports of any significant transgressions locally, one incident that attracted national headlines was the garda encountering of a man travelling from Tipperary to Limerick to buy a trampoline. Gardaí have not disclosed where this detection was made or what action was taken.

WELL-PATROLLED
Simon Ryan, who lives beside the Old Harbour in Garrykennedy, said the village was well-patrolled by gardaí in the days approaching and over the weekend.
“There was one cruiser that arrived and fortunately the guards were here at the time. It moored at the outer harbour before moving off again,” said Mr Ryan.
“In general it was quite good; people really abided by the rules. But we did have someone arrive from somewhere on Sunday to a holiday home and a lot of the people were not happy about that.”
Mr Ryan added: “Normally we would have lots of people here jumping into the lake and swimming, but not last weekend. The place is just deserted. It reminds me of when I was growing up here in the late '50s; there was not a sinner around.”
TJ O'Brien, proprietor with his wife, Noda, of TJ's Angling Centre and provisions shop on Main Street, Ballina, said the area would usually be bustling with visitors at this time of the year, but it had been very quiet over Easter.
“People did stay away. I went out for a walk around the place on Sunday and it was just dead around the place. You would normally see English and Dublin registered cars all over, but not now".

 

BUSINESSES DEPEND ON TOURISM
Mr O'Brien said the enforced closures of local businesses were hitting very hard as Ballina-Killaloe depended so much on the tourism.
“I myself provide a guiding service on Lough Derg for visiting anglers and usually I would be booked out at this time of the year for April and May and June. But all this has been cancelled. Most shops are closed and we would be closed too only for the fact that we sell newspapers and my wife delivers them and other provisions to people around the area.”
Mr O'Brien added: “The gardaí have been out here stopping cars. They have been fairly active around, which is a good thing, because you don't want to see people on cruisers going from harbour to harbour on the lake spreading the virus around.”
Meanwhile, Declan Collison, owner of the Lake Cafe and the guesthouse, Lough Derg House in Dromineer, said there was no evidence of visitors to the village over the Easter break.
“People have obeyed the rules; there's only local people around. We have had a big garda presence here. I have seen them on patrol in the village and the garda patrol boat has been around on a number of occasions.”
Joe Ryan, proprietor, with his wife Rita of The Whiskey Still pub and restaurant in Dromineer, said he had never seen the village so quiet at this time of year. He thanked visitors for staying away and complimented the gardaí for their regular patrols in the village and on the water.
It was a similar situation in Terryglass where Bob Foyle of Terryglass Improvements Association described the village as strangely deserted for the Easter weekend. But this was a welcome problem for the lakeside community, members of which do not want to see visitors potentially spreading Covid-19.
“No way; we don't want people coming down, not at this time,” Mr Foyle said. He spoke of how the garda boat engaged a couple of local fishermen on Thursday and said no difficulties arose.

 

DISCOURAGING PEOPLE FROM USING THE LAKE
“The gardaí were very polite. They are trying to discourage people from going out on the lake, and people understand that.”
While he had heard of gatherings on other parts of the lake, Mr Foyle said Terryglass remains quiet. The only hub of activity as such is the Derg shop, which he said is well-stocked and providing a fantastic service to the local community.
These lakeside scenes serve a stark contrast to further up the Shannon at Portumna, where there have been reports of a noticeable increase of activity and sightings of new Dublin-registered cars. While the coronavirus crisis has brought out the best in many people, it would appear to have brought out irresponsible behaviour among others, with reports of significant numbers of people travelling from the epicentre of Ireland's coronavirus outbreak to Portumna over recent days.
The virus situation in Tipperary has, meanwhile, continued its upward curve with an additional 24 cases reported over the weekend. There are now over 200 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the county. Roughly a thousand tests for the virus have been carried out in Nenagh.