Special award for Tyrone GAA man leading A5 upgrade campaign

THE chairman of an influential campaign group which has lobbied for the delivery of a new A5 road has received a Special Recognition award.

Niall McKenna, chairman of the Tyrone GAA-founded A5 Enough is Enough group, was honoured at the annual Ulster GAA awards, held recently at Canavan’s in Garvaghey.

Mr McKenna, who serves as Treasurer of the Tyrone GAA County Committee and Public Relations Officer of his home club Killyclogher, is a driving force behind the A5 Enough is Enough campaign group.

Founded in November 2022, Mr McKenna said he was motivated to form the group after John Rafferty, a talented young Killyclogher footballer, tragically lost his life in a collision on the notorious stretch of road.

“I saw the devastation that it did to my own club, his teammates and particularly to the Rafferty family,” said Mr McKenna.

“A few of us got speaking and we just said, surely enough is enough. This road, which is a death trap, is killing our membership.”

Since the group’s inception, significant progress has been made towards the construction of a new 58-mile dual carriageway which would run between Derry and Aughnacloy.

Following the completion of a third Public Inquiry in 2023, Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd confirmed last autumn that development of the new road would begin this year.

The future of the A5 upgrade was subsequently thrown into uncertainty, however, when it emerged that a legal challenge to the decision was being lodged by objectors.

The High Court hearing will now take place on Tuesday, March 18, a fortnight later than expected.

Initially penciled in for the first week of March, lawyers for the Department of Infrastructure successfully sought a delay after civil servants failed to submit affidavit evidence in time for last month’s deadline of January 17.