UP to a fortnight ago, a walk down Bridge Street in the ancient town of Callan, Co Kilkenny, was a perilous excursion. Said to be the narrowest street between Dublin and Cork, it has footpaths to match.
An average of one articulated lorry per minute thundered down this cramped thoroughfare, within inches of pedestrians and shop doors. Locals tell of ducking to avoid the extended mirrors.
At last, however, Callan has got its by-pass, opened on May 28th by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin. The 3.4 km- stretch and new bridge cost £4.5 million, and the Kilkenny People dubbed it a "highway to heaven" for the little town.
If anyone doubted that Callan had a problem, they had only to sit in Margaret Fennelly's cosy traditional pub-cum-shop in Bridge Street and listen to the walls shake.
"If you saw my upstairs - it was cracked for a long time, then it fell down," said Mrs Fennelly. "There's a big hole in the front room."
The townspeople had been calling for a by-pass for more than 40 years, and in the late 1980s a local action committee took up the campaign more militantly. They mounted many peaceful protests on the streets to highlight the problem which was choking the town with fumes and noise, and inhibiting its proper development.
Mr Howling noted the traffic count findings which indicated that more than 4,000 vehicles passed through every day, 14 per cent of them heavy vehicles. Bridge Street formed part of the busy N76 secondary route between Kilkenny and Clonmel and points south.
The by-pass has been landscaped with 80,000 trees and shrubs. It will allow the council and local business people to set about the renewal of Bridge Street, which was once a vibrant commercial and residential area, with fine traditional shopfronts.
The lifting of the relentless traffic siege will give Callan an opportunity to build upon its historic associations and visitor attractions.
The town, on the King's River, returned a member to the Irish Parliament before the Union; for the loss of this privilege the Lord Cal Ian of that day received £15,000 compensation.
It has traces of a castle besieged by Cromwell in 1650, and the remains of an Augustinian friary founded by James Butler in the 15th century and containing ornamental sedilia, or stone seats for priests. It has a major famine graveyard, fully restored by a FAS scheme under the direction of the Callan Enterprise Group. Mass was celebrated on the site last week for the thousands of famine victims laid to rest there.
Callan, of course, is also noted as the birthplace of Brother Rice - now Blessed Edmund Rice - the 18th-century founder of the Irish Christian Brothers. He was born in a thatched farmhouse, now marked by a plaque, at Westcourt just outside the town.