Michael Moynihan has developed an exceptional connection to the ebbs and flows of the tide and the warning signs of storms. Together with his wife, Bríd, the couple manages The Brook Pub, situated a stone’s throw away from the beach in the northern Portrane area of County Dublin. This wasn’t always the location of the establishment.
Photos displayed in the pub indicate that in 1998, the pub and local residences were partitioned from the sea by a range of dunes carpeted in green grass. However, the past few years have witnessed the disappearance of the sand dunes due to a mix of heavy tides and fierce storms, causing the sea to edge closer to the homes lining the beach and the pub, Moynihan noted.
He pinpointed the 2018 ‘Beast from the East’ as the pivotal moment when it became evident that there was trouble brewing. ‘That’s when the dunes started to slowly erode, eaten away bit by bit,’ said Moynihan.
Fortuitously, the pub and the Moynihan’s adjacent residence sit behind a steel barrier constructed in the late 1950s, which has successfully reduced erosion to a degree. However, the sea continues its relentless, steady advance onto other parts of the shore.
Local Social Democrat councillor, Paul Mulville, has witnessed the vanishing of the sand bank guarding his own home, as a consequence of the recent Storm Kathleen. This has resulted in an unwanted view of the sea. One close-by house has already collapsed onto the beach due to erosion by the sea, and several others face a similar threat.
Mulville spoke of a pervasive atmosphere of despair in the community, with little hope of any intervention in the imminent future. He pointed out that there is an absence of any safety measures or compensation schemes for residents who could lose their homes.
Dublin’s erosion issue appears to have escalated in recent times, particularly in specific regions including Portrane, Rush, Portmarnock and Donabate, identified as areas of high erosion. A study conducted by Geological Survey Ireland from 2000 to 2021 highlighted 19 per cent of the coast suffering medium erosion and a concerning 7 per cent experiencing severe erosion over these years.
The same research shows an alarming acceleration, noting an uptick in the pace and size of erosion along Dublin’s soft coasts from 2013 to 2021. Evidence of this is also reflected in personal narratives of locals, such as Tom Barton, who lost a significant part of his garden to a single storm and expressed the distress caused.
According to local councillor Adrian Henchy, combating erosion for Portrane is particularly complex due to its status as a unique conservation area, hence large-scale engineering options like more steel revetments or a rock wall are off the table as they could harm local wildlife.
In the short term, the area has placed huge, mobile, hexagonal concrete blocks, known as seabees, in an extended honeycomb pattern along the beach in an attempt to disrupt the wave action. While showing initial promise according to local residents, these seabees do eventually sink into the sand and therefore lose their effectiveness.
A longer-term aim is to create several sea groynes; these are lengthy structures stretching out into the sea made from rock or concrete intended to break waves and thus limit their capacity to erode the coastline.
The shoreline from the beach provides a clear outlook of a roughly 20-foot bank that looks like it’s been chewed away, revealing open areas of soft, sandy sediment, and offering a glimpse of roof-tops peeking over the top. Overcoming this issue takes time and has to overcome various bureaucratic obstacles, such as the stamp of approval from the newly established Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA).
According to Henchy, this situation has resulted in a painfully slow process with no set schedule for the establishment of breakwaters. The relentless force of the sea against the bank has had significant repercussions. A stroll along the Portrane beach provides a stark picture of the situation. Storms and tidal activity have eroded hundreds of meters of land by the shore, hence reducing the gap between the beach, the embankment and residential properties nearby.
During a certain instance, an enormous piece of garden platform apparently collapsed and currently lays leaning on the beach. Further along the beach, drains and wires lay bare. In other areas, a garden shed balances precariously on an aggressively deteriorating cliff edge.
Some residences have already been lost to this calamity, the most noteworthy being a local house which suffered damage due to Storm Emma in 2018. Others are narrowly escaping the same fate.
Even though Portrane could be considered the worst case scenario for coastal erosion, the issue is not confined to this part of Dublin’s shorelines. The Irish Rail has also been striving to support rail lines utilised by the Dart and mainline services, while Wexford has experienced similar high rates of erosion in the recent years.
Public comprehension of the impact of erosion is not perfect, states Dr Jimmy Murphy, a UCC academic expert in coastal erosion, and can differ greatly based on numerous factors. While beaches like Portrane suffer rapid erosion, it can be observed that many other stretches are growing.
Murphy explained, “Among the issues with managing the Irish shorelines is the lack of long-term data regarding beach processes and changes in beach levels, making it challenging to determine the best solution for beach protection.”
Rock revetments, sloping structures placed towards the end of the beach, are often used in Ireland to stop erosion, although they don’t tackle the root cause of the problem, which, according to coastal erosion specialist Dr Jimmy Murphy, is a sand insufficiency.
As a result, beach nourishment becomes a subject of discussion, which involves extracting sand from the seabed and depositing it on the beach to balance out the sand that’s been lost. Dr Murphy disagrees with this perspective of patiently waiting for damage to happen before taking preventative steps, especially in the case of homeowners whose properties are at risk.
He mentions a case in the United States where a large amount of sand, along with substantial budget, was used to restore a ruptured portion of a barrier island, known as West Hampton Dunes. However, he points out the need for a more pre-emptive way of addressing coastal erosion in Ireland.
Dr Murphy is carrying out research on Cork’s coastline, with the aim of forming a coastal vulnerability index to establish a consistent methodology for identifying coastal areas that will require safeguarding.
His vision is about adopting a systematised plan to handle coastal erosion in contrast to the current haphazard approach, and developing a long-term strategy instead of letting nature dictate the zones of protection. He argues the latter is not satisfactory for residents whose homes are in danger.
However, some inhabitants may find these actions insufficient and their worry is only escalating. For example, Tom Barton, whose house is highly prone to coastal erosion, requests immediate action to protect his home whilst the groynes are still in the middle of the planning procedure.
He insists that quick building is crucial, and immediate measures must be taken, and such steps would ease the minds of many people in the same situation.