Mixed views on Taoiseach’s £2.6m for north-south bridge at Narrow Water

The proposed bridge over Carlingfod Lough would link Warrenpoint in County Down and Omeath in County Louth.

The 280m cable-stayed bridge will feature lanes for cars and cycles and will be anchored by towers at either end. Construction is expected to begin in 2023 with Louth County and Newry, Mourne and Down District councils overseeing delivery.

Plans to build the bridge were put on hold in 2013 when Louth County Council said tenders had been significantly above the expected figure - ranging from £22.4m to £34.5m.

However Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced today £2.6m in funding from the Shared Island Fund to progress work.

John McGreevy of the Kilmorey Arms Hotel in Kilkeel said the proposal was “a good idea”.

“I think it would bring custom into the area,” he said. “We should look for the good in it - why can’t we be the culinary area of Down and Mourne?”

His hotel gets many guests from the south who come via Newcastle and Newry, and who say the offering, with the nearby Mourne Mountains, is “amazing”.

South Down MLA Jim Wells said he had no strong views on the project - so long as it did not undermine plans for a new road link to the main Belfast-Dublin carriageway- and safeguards fishing in the lough.

“Shellfish trawler owners objected to the previous proposal for a bridge at Narrow Water and they believe that their views were not given sufficient weight,” he said.

The Southern Relief Road must also not be jeoardparised, he said. It would bypass Newry to provide a strong road link between south Down and the main arterial route between Belfast and Dublin.