Neglect of royal canal means the fish are disappearing and litter is building up between green bridge and dublin bridge

When Mullingar man Graham Temple went for a walk along the canal from the Green Bridge, he was shocked to find that litter – including a discarded black plastic sack full of refuse – was all still exactly as it was when he’d last been there, during Christmas week.

All he needed to do was scroll back through the pictures on his mobile phone to verify that not one iota of refuse had been collected.

The sports broadcaster, who is also the commentator at Mullingar Greyhound Stadium, and a past local election candidate, was horrified.

“I’m totally appalled at the state of the canal between the Green Bridge and the Dublin Bridge,” he told The Westmeath Examiner this week.

“Westmeath County Council should consider employing a full-time warden for the canal in the town,” he said, adding that the area is disgraceful, and that if any visitors to town were to decide to take a stroll there, they would be disgusted.

What particularly shocked him was that he was able to see clearly how the canal bed around the Green Bridge in particular, was covered in discarded drinks cans and bottles.

“If I were in Spain, and saw a lovely canal and decided to go for a walk and saw what I saw in Mullingar, I’d just think: ‘this town is disgusting’,” he said.

He believes Mullingar should be doing much more to maximise the benefits of having the amenity, such as erecting signs, and promoting it as a route for walkers.

“Why are there no signs on the bridges saying who built them, and when they were built; no historical information? There are no signs to indicate where you are.

“There should also be bins provided,” he says.

However, he adds, it’s clear that there are drinkers congregating in the area, and apart from the fact that they are throwing their cans and bottles into the canal, he believes their presence could be seen as menacing by lone walkers.

“People are loitering under the bridges and drinking,” he says.

“We should have signs up saying that drinking is prohibited. The gardaí should check it.

“And they should incentivise it. You never see a boat on it. Why don’t they incentivise someone to offer the circuit of Mullingar by boat? It’s just not used as a tourist attraction.”

 

Angling over

Meanwhile, Mullingar fisherman, David McCormack, says anglers have given up fishing the canal in Mullingar – because there are simply too few fish in it now.

“There’s been a decline for probably the last 10 years,” he says.

“There are very few fish in comparison to what used to be there – and in the town section, where there used to be fish – there seems to be none at all now.”

David recalls a time when there were fishing competitions on the canal in Mullingar, and anglers would succeed in hooking roach, rudd, perch and tench. At the time, the angling club would have played a role in maintaining the canal.

Where have the fish gone?

“There have been some problems with poaching,” he believes – and a lack of management of the resource.

By contrast, Dave continues, at Edenderry, the canal is restocked each year, and it is well maintained.

Like Mr Temple, he believes that the canal should be better taken care of: access to the banks can be difficult, he says – and, of course, there is the problem of litter, much of it going straight into the canal itself.

“The canal isn’t polluted: the water comes from Lough Owel, and although there might be a little bit of overflow from the roads, the water is relatively clean, but there is a lot of rubbish in the canal, because no one is looking after it.

“It wouldn’t be a big problem to clean it – and if it were cleaned, and the banks maintained, I think it would attract a lot more people.”