Excess On Main Street?

Anthony Farrelly SAT9AUG25

t was five years ago that Delgany residents starting banging heads with then-town engineer Ruairi O’Hanlon over his plans to turn the village’s main road into a one-way.

For those living and working in Delgany, their preference was for a cul de sac, with the new route along Delgany Wood Avenue an easy option for those heading on their school runs or Lidl big shops.

Ruairi O’Hanlon

If you actually needed something in the village, you drove into the village. Simple.

Ruairi was adamant about his one-way-or-the-highway plan though. A plan that came with no parking on the main street. And then, without warning, he announced that the funding deadline had passed, and there would be no solution to this growing problem of the village being used purely as an access route for a seemingly endless stream of cars every day.

That appeared to be that until Ruairi’s proposal popped up last week – again, without warning – at the most recent Greystones Municipal District Council meeting.

And it would appear that everything is back to square one. Only this time, Ruairi has changed jobs, and is now the man with the finger on the purse as the big cheese in Urban Regeneration & Development Funding.

So, he’s now very much the kid who owns the ball.

It’s early days, with any new plans yet to be presented to local councillors or to the good people of Delgany. And when those plans are revealed, we’ll get them out there.

In the meantime, we caught up with Anthony at Farrelly’s butchers, one of the long-time Delgany businesses that will be badly hit should the village main street become a life-size Scalextric set…

In the meantime, you can join the Delgany street festival for Heritage Week on Saturday, August 16th here.