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A Cow In The Middle Of The Road
A Typical Road Obstruction On Achill Island!
In cities all around the world the roads and streets are always being dug up for some service maintenance or another thus causing delays and traffic jams. On Achill Island we don't have this problem, for the most part - there are no services to maintain! (only joking!). Nevertheless, when setting out on a journey, extra time must be calculated and allowed for those unforseen delays - those obstructions that go 'Moo!'. Though, to be honest, the obstruction usually goes 'baaaah' - sheep!
Commonage is land which is collectively 'owned' by locals who have commonage rights which means that they can graze their animals on this land. Thus, there are 'stray' grazing animals wandering the island and feeding along the roadside. In the past this was acceptable - the usual land holding was very small indeed, and so the extra share of grazing commonage land was very important, but there are so many cars on the road these days that the situation has become slightly dangerous, especially around blind bends in the road.
It is difficult to know how much longer this type of grazing will be allowed. There is a lot less use being made of the commonage areas on certain parts of the island now but even that, in itself, creates a problem. For without the constant grazing of the animals along the roadsides they are becoming overgrown and unsightly.
Rushes (tall reed-like wild 'grass') are taking over the whole island wherever there are no grazing animals. So, one problem going away causes another problem - things are never straightforward in Achill. Sure, why should they be?
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