Could the Youghal-Waterford ferry route be re-established? 

Records suggest locals were using ferries to get around since at least the 13th century but the line was closed in 1954. 

One man who remembers the old ferry with fondness is Tony Gallagher of Ardmore in County Waterford.

A child of the 1950s, for his family, taking the ferry often meant a big day out.  

“I remember being brought down here on the bar of the bicycle for what they now call a ‘rite of passage’ for the first communion and the confirmation,” he told Josh Crosbie for The Pat Kenny Show. 

“You’d be brought across to Youghal on the ferry and measured up and somebody would call you ‘Master Gallagher’ or whatever.” 

Youghal, Cork. 20/08/2023 Image: David Creedon / Alamy Stock Photo

Amid renewed emphasis on public transport and a bottle neck at Youghal Bridge, there has been talk on the feasibility of re-establishing it.

Mr Gallagher said there was a “lot of pressure” from locals in favour of it but there was still plenty that needs to be worked out. 

“You’d need to have a permanent landing place on the other side, that’s doable,” he said. 

“We already have a pontoon that was brought there at the beginning of April but it was brought away there two weeks back.”

'Headland hopping'

Artist Seán Corcoran said ‘headland hopping’, as he called travelling from peninsula to peninsula, would be “much more practical” if there was a ferry to transport people. 

“The idea is that if you’re walking along a coastline from Rosslare to Mizenhead,” he said. 

“If you’re on foot, you look at a headland in the distance and you think, ‘You can’t go from headland to headland if you’re walking.’ 

“So, by the time we got to Ardmore, which is on the Waterford side of Youghal, we kind of thought, ‘Well, if you’re walking or if you’re cycling, rather than going all the way inland and around the ring road of Youghal, why can’t we ‘headland hop’?” 

View along the waterfront of Youghal. 26/04/2008

Not everyone shared his enthusiasm; local businessman Michael Farrell said he thought it an “April’s Fool joke” when he first heard it. 

“Everyone’s perplexed by the idea of it,” he said. 

“It just doesn’t make any sense… It’s a complete waste of money and there’s a lot more pressing issues that the town needs. 

“I just think it would be a white elephant.” 

Most ferry connections in Ireland serve island communities but others do link mainland areas as well - such as the Strangford to Portaferry route in County Down and the Greencastle to Magilligan Point in Counties Donegal and Derry.

Main image: Ferry arriving at Cape Clear Island. Picture by: Alamy.com.