A young couple living in Inchicore, Dublin, are “heartbroken” after their back garden wall collapsed into the Camac river and now fear part of their home will also fall.
Ellen Blehein (32) and her husband Robert (30) were out on Friday night when a neighbour called to tell them that the entire back garden wall of their house on Tyrconnell Street had collapsed into the river on to which their property backs out.
The couple, originally from West Dublin and recently married, bought the house in Dublin 8 in early 2021. They believe the river wall which had been supporting the structure collapsed, resulting in the wall falling into the river along with their small patio and wastewater pipes.
While the couple were aware of the heightened flood risk when purchasing the house, two engineers did not report any decay of the back wall, which was about 2m high. It was only months after moving in that they began to notice cracks in their interior and exterior walls, with subsequent engineer reports finding that the house was tilting as the river wall decayed.
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The couple informed Dublin City Council at the time and sent over the reports they had commissioned.
They now believe their conservatory is also about to collapse into the river and have been told to stay out of the room by their engineer due to the danger. They have moved as many of their possessions as they can from the back of their home.
“We had to leave the house last night because the conservatory is about to collapse into the river,” said Ms Blehein on Monday. “It started creaking at about 1.30am and it woke us up. Half of our house is condemned, we can’t live here, there’s no wastewater pipes. We don’t really have anywhere to go either, we can’t really go home to family. We had to use our neighbour’s bathroom and shower, we are absolutely devastated.”
Ms Blehein said council officials from two departments visited over recent days but the couple were told the matter would be passed on to the city engineers and the authority will not be repairing the river wall or its culvert.
She said she was extremely disappointed and had hoped that the local authority or the Office of Public Works could put in place an immediate plan to help deal with the situation.
“We need to repair our house but we can’t do anything until they [the council] fix the river wall because no engineer will touch the house as it is because all of our foundations are being eaten away by the river,” added Ms Blehein.
“If the river wall isn’t repaired, our house is going to get washed away,” she said. “We will probably have to knock part of our house, if it doesn’t already fall into the river, to repair the river wall because it is a danger but we just want them to do something and get a plan in place.
“If it’s going to be a year, two years, however long it’s going to be, but just so that we know that they’re working on it because this is our home. We’re not asking for the council to pay for everything ... We know we’re going to have to pay for a lot of it ourselves, but we just need them to do their job and fix the public area.”
The council said engineers for the local authority had visited the site on Monday.
“We will seek to establish ownership of the collapsed wall but our current understanding is that this is not in the ownership of Dublin City Council,” said a spokesman.
“Once we have established ownership of the river banks/riparian zone, we will seek the removal of any potential obstructions that may pose a flood risk. We may carry out works in the short term if these are required for public safety.”
The Office of Public Works said it was aware that the council was liaising with the affected property owners on Monday.
“In relation to any localised or urgent flood risk identified by Dublin City Council, it is open to the council to apply for funding assistance through the Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme,” it said.
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