NEXT weekend Antrim hurlers will play in the final of the Joe McDonough Cup in Croke Park. It's the second tier of the All-Ireland hurling championship and the first time the Saffrons have made the final since the competition was initiated about five years ago, so it's a big deal. The winners will play in the ‘A’ competition next season, and that’s a big prize.
Under normal circumstances this match would have taken place in the summer, and thousands of us would have headed south to support the team and soak up the big match atmosphere. There will be some wistful and wishful thinking as the weekend approaches, because we aren’t making plans, buying tickets, arranging to meet for a pint or two before - and after - the game. Instead, we will watch, and cheer on, from home.
In normal times my plan would likely have involved making the trip by train, despite the fact that travelling between the two main cities on the island still takes approximately the same amount of time on track than it does by road. Translink have a target to reduce this to closer to 90 minutes, in line with the emergence of the new Belfast Transport Hub, the demonstrable evidence of which is now clearly visible along the Grosvenor Road.
Over this last weekend, there was more speculation on the potential impact of a high speed rail network throughout the island, linking the Belfast - Dublin - Cork corridor, alongside a track running the west of the country, from Derry to Limerick via Galway. This is an issue which surfaces with increasing regularity and there are many examples of political declarations of support in principle. The key issue, the time it takes to travel between Belfast and Dublin is especially in the political spotlight.
The principle of a high speed rail link between the two cities was recognised and supported in the DUP Westminster election manifesto last December, it was explicitly mentioned in the New Decade, New Approach agreement upon which the return to devolution was based, and it was a manifesto pledge of Fianna Fail in the last Dail election. It is detailed in the Irish Government’s Programme for Government.
Simon Coveney, when Tanaiste, was the first mainstream political leader in the Dublin government to express support and to talk about funding a feasibility study into the project. An Taoiseach Micheal Martin has also talked of the need to invest in all Ireland infrastructure including a high speed rail link, not only between Belfast and Dublin but also to take in Cork. The project is has been championed by our own Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon. So there is political support in place, in principle, but to date no real practical steps have been taken to move the project forward.
To be fair to Minister Mallon, she has explicitly recognised the need to rebalance investment and infrastructure spending in Northern Ireland and her Department is undertaking studies into the rail linkages between Derry and Belfast as well as other parts of Northern Ireland. That’s positive, but such studies will go so far; investment is needed which likely runs into billions of pounds if we are Project Rail is to become Project Real.
Economist David McWilliams addressed the point at the weekend and said: “Standing back and looking ahead 50 years, the reunification of the country (which will happen, again driven by demographics), makes the Dublin-Belfast corridor by far the most populous part of the country. More than half of the whole island will live in that parcel of coastal land stretching south to north from Bray to Ballymena.
“All-island infrastructure has not been considered for 100 years. Today, we must start building and not stop building until this island has an integrated public-transport system that cuts rail time between Belfast and Cork (a distance of 420km) to less than 1½ hours.”
Of course it is technically feasible and has been done elsewhere. High speed trains have been a feature in France for 40 years now. McWilliams argues that it is entirely possible to fund such major infrastructure especially with access to European Funds and availability of low cost finance via the European Investment Bank.
It is often the case that far sighted infrastructure projects are so long term that politicians fail to see the political upside in making funding decisions which don’t pay off in the current political and election cycle.
But that far-sighted thinking is what is required here. Yes, the stated political to island wide infrastructure is absolutely important and so too are the feasibility studies, but really decision and investments are required to map out a new future for this island.
High speed rail is an opportunity which touches economics, environmental sustainability and even the way we travel and work in a post-Covid Northern Ireland. It is an idea whose time has come, in fact it arrived a few years ago.
As Antrim hurlers build on a successful year, the dreamers among the supporters will start to think about a senior All-Ireland appearance in Croke Park in the years ahead. When that time comes, I want to be there, and I want to travel on a train that takes about 40 minutes.
Brendan Mulgrew is managing partner at MW Advocate (www.mwadvocate.com). Follow him on Twitter at @brendanbelfast
