Historic Offaly bridge still hidden behind scaffolding after years

ARDARA BRIDGE is one of the most beautiful and historic bridges in Offaly but sadly it has remained hidden behind a structure of scaffolding for years.

Nearly three decades ago the late Paddy Heaney (a popular local historian) began warning people that this magnificent structure was in danger of collapse. A campaign got underway, waged partly in The Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune, and eventually the OPW took action. It removed trees and vegetation from the site and erected a large structure of scaffolding, thereby preventing the bridge from collapsing. That was in 2007 and 2008. Since then nothing has happened.

The promised restoration work hasn't started. It's a shoddy way to treat an elegant and much-loved structure.
The last person of note to mention the bridge in a public setting was Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, when she was a TD. In February 2018 she addressed a question in the Dáil to Boxer Moran, a Minister of State at the time.

In his reply, Boxer said the bridge had been in a “very poor condition for many years”, mostly due to the effects of water and invasive tree growth. He said that since 2007 considerable conservation work had been undertaken to save the bridge from collapse.

“The project has been phased to ensure that the work proceeds in a logical fashion,” he commented, “recognising the need to address elements sequentially and to ensure that the necessary resources are in place to complete each individual task. The project has been technically very challenging and hampered by the extremely fragile nature of the structure. Over a number of seasons, high water levels in the river have made conditions for workers hazardous. There is a serious historic collapse of the bridge on the downstream side and this is where attention is focussed currently. The OPW is at present working on a design solution for this collapse and it is intended that this part of the project will continue for much of the year. Once complete, this proposal will have to be submitted for the Consent of the Minister for Culture, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs under the National Monuments Acts. It is not expected that works will be on site until next year.”

Since then nothing has happened. The date of the bridge is uncertain. Some say 1400s or 1500s; others early 1800s. It is made of dry stone with no mortar or lime. In 2000 Dr Elizabeth FitzPatrick of NUI Galway's archaeology department said the bridge, spanning the Silver River, was a "beautiful structure, a wonderful curiosity in Cadamstown, which deserves to be preserved."