Mayo drystone farm field walls remain in tatters after storm

A plea has been issued to the Minister of Agriculture to fund the repair of farm field walls left in tatters across the west of Ireland in the aftermath of Story Eowyn.

Galway Senator PJ Murphy outlined: "Between the counties of Galway, Clare, Mayo and Roscommon, it is estimated that we have approximately 400,000 km of dry stone walls on our roadsides and around our fields.

"That is enough wall to run the length of the equator ten times over.

"It is by a long way the largest stone wall network in the world.

"In kilometre terms, it consists of about nine times more wall than the Great Wall of China when it was at its peak.

"Our stone walls are currently in tatters and on the ground after the storm.

"The reconstruction job for many farmers will be a mammoth task.

"I worry that for many elderly farmers the task may be just too great and that, if unassisted by the State, these walls will simply lie where they currently are, on the ground.

"I call on the Minister for agriculture and the Minister for Heritage to sit down together on this.

"I call on them to put together, as a matter of urgency, a package to help with the cost of rebuilding these walls.

"Just like our Georgian buildings in Dublin and Limerick, our stone walls in the west are an important part of our built heritage, and once gone they will not be replaced."