Bernadette McAliskey: People power needed to save Lough Neagh

VETERAN activist Bernadette McAliskey tonight said people must work together to save Lough Neagh.

“No saviour from on high will save the lough, we must do it ourselves,” she told a public meeting in Cookstown, which was organised to discuss the ongoing algae crisis in the lough.

The event, organised by political ecologist Dr Louise Taylor, brought together fishermen, politicians and members of the communities living around Lough Neagh to discuss what needs to be done.

The algae problem, which has plagued Lough Neagh for a third consecutive year, worsened during the warmer weather in the summer.

There has been much debate about what can be done to tackle the problem.

Speaking at tonight’s meeting at the Kinturk Cultural Centre, Ms McAliskey said a vision was needed of what the lough should be.

“It’s very hard to decide how to get somewhere if you weren’t very sure where you wanted to go,” she said.

“What we’re missing going forward with Lough Neagh is that we have a lot to say about what’s wrong. Everybody has a bit of the answer to put it right, but that answer is what somebody else would have to do.

“When pointing the finger of blame, we have to think what we’re doing to put it right.

“We need to have a vision of what we want the future of Lough Neagh to be. Otherwise we can’t work together to get there.”

The former Mid Ulster MP admitted she was not ‘entirely sure that we share the same vision for the lough’.

“I know some of us do. We keep talking about the lough dying and what we do if it disappears.

“The lough is 400 million years old and will be here when we’re not here.

“It used to be twice the size it once was. Everything that’s living around it and in Lough Neagh will disappear. Not the lough.”

She continued: “If we want a vision of Lough Neagh which suits us all, that vision has to be a vision that respects the fundamental rights of nature itself.

“When we talk about owning the lough, we shouldn’t see it as property or an asset.

“We should be collectively responsible and accountable for ensuring the lough is restored to health as a priority.

“If we thought that way we would make sacrifices like we do for our own children.

“If we think first of where we want to be, then it will be easier to get there together.”