Greenways [greenway map of Ireland in post 1]

The Cycling Show (1-3) | Player | Irish Television Channel, Súil Eile (tg4.ie)

There's a short section on Greenways in the episode above, from 08:13 in the show.

What's a Greenway Park?

Athlone local radio program has Boxer Moran discussing the route of the Greenway after the bridge in Athlone. So we go under the town bridge arch, onto the castle, through "the meadow" past the Shamrock Lodge and "onto Galway"

I'm miffed at how to draw a line (or even a zigzag) in that direction but its not the first time a politician/taxi driver has confused me.

https://www.mixcloud.com/AthloneCommunityRadio/streetwiseathloneepisode26/

(last interview in the podcast if ye want to skip the local crapp)

not wishing to be negative, but it makes the Limerick greenway look exciting, not even a bend in the path to keep you awake.

In the words of General Melchett from Blackadder "god its a barren featureless desert out there!" - But that's East Cork for you.

Would have been better as a railway, if only to prevent cyclists falling asleep and crashing.

This place? https://goo.gl/maps/Lbz4avgdn5Wwwdws7

That house looks like it was the original house for the level crossing keeper, it's not actually on the line but immediately adjacent to it.

There doesn't appear to be any groundworks to go around the yard as of Jan 2021 from Google Earth.

If the owners have planning permission for the yard/front of house I would expect that they'd CPO some cheap adjacent land and chicane around them.

Even if they don't have planning permission, they might be there long enough for adverse possession to kick in.

Agree with the first part of your post. It is flat and straight with farmlands either side until you get to Ballyvergan Marsh. So they might have to make the most of the attractions possible. It runs alongside the distillery at the Midleton end so Jameson might market it well by opening up the fence with a bit of a view of the distillery buildings.

East Cork is great though. A few notice boards on local history could make people see things they'd immediately cycle past. There's an old walkway bisecting the line outside Midleton which follows a river that used run the old turbine in the Distillery. That would cost little to restore and I know a few locals are pushing that to make a ring walk around Midleton to include a bit of the Greenway. There is a nice ruin, Cahermone Castle near there aswell. It is extremely near to the Greenway. Trees currently obscure the view and I'd say 90% of cyclists and pedestrians wouldn't know it's there. Then you have the Bladebridge built using decommissioned air turbine blades.

The Waterford Greenway is great at Halloween. I guess it might be distasteful to landmark the unidentified body and coffin found at the Shanty Gate?

And that's just the Midleton end that I'm familiar with. You could do a detour in Killeagh to link in to Glenbower Wood aswell, a beautiful area and in addition to the Naval Base. They are making a wooden boardwalk for the last 1.5km in Youghal alright to create a bird-watching area.

Yep I'm a big fan of East Cork too. There's a lot of hidden gems in East Cork. From a Victorian infrastructure perspective, Midleton to Youghal might not be riveting, but it does have plenty else.

You've mentioned some good bits at the West, but the ending at Youghal Beach is worth a shout too. Clonea is not quite ON the greenway, whereas Youghal Beach most certainly is. Glenbower in Killeagh is a bit off the greenway itself but it's an attraction. It's not bad for a 20k section of greenway.

I think the ~9km Killeagh to Youghal section will be the only "boring" bit really. And perhaps the marshes will be able to provide something of interest there.

I think they're planning to continue the Dungarvan greenway along the rest of the former railway to Fermoy, not sure if there are plans to connect that down to Youghal. The Waterford-Rosslare greenway seems to be in limbo as a lot of Wexford politicians want to see the railway restored.

didn't stop them in Mayo, and it's been established in Kerry now that they can CPO if necessary. If it was a road no one would be saying "good luck building that through farmland".

All I know is the councils have been given funding to plan the extension towards Fermoy

It's not just about being close to a ditch; what if there is a dairy herd both sides, how does silage get hauled across Greenway, what if Greenway brings people, dogs etc who's presence is in contravention of a food quality scheme?

The solution to the above is expensive, and CPO will get very expensive quickly.

The CPO route for roads, ESB sees a lot of noses in the trough to be fed

You should really tell Waterford county council about all the money they wasted on underpasses. While you are at it tell all the dairy farmers constructing them to just use a gate...

Gate compliant with disease control for quality food schemes?

Happy to have 100 silage trailers crossing per day and mix with kids on bikes?

The kids should be helping out and driving the tractors instead of arsing around on bikes. In my day...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaA1P4FcvSk

Luckily for us, we have more money for sustainable infrastructure projects than ever before. And luckily for those projects, roads infrastructure is obscenely expensive. I don't foresee money being a significant obstacle.