Reminder of Liffey flood danger

Photo courtesy of Eugene Brennan.

With the Liffey flowing fast and high in recent days through Kilcullen, it is maybe a good idea to highlight the issue again in the interests of safety, writes Brian Byrne.

Eugene Brennan, who keeps an eye on such things, notes that recently flows from the Golden Falls dam at Ballymore Eustace have tipped up to as much as 38 cubic metres of water per second.

That's 38 tonnes of water each second. You can appreciate how difficult it would be to swim against that for either human or animal caught in the flow, which can rise very quickly. 

For comparison, the usual Liffey flow is around 1.5m3/s. "Most locals in Kilcullen will know about the rapid increases in water levels in the Liffey, but possibly new residents may not be as aware of this," Eugene says.

The present heavy flows are due to the release of water from the reservoir due to heavy rains in recent weeks. Floods during early autumn were due to works being carried out at the dam. According to Ballymore News Facebook page, the releases are generally at 8am and 5pm, which means the river is high for most of the time.

Picture at bridge with water not quite as high as it has been recently.

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