Inishowen’s ‘Night of the Big Flood’ recalled in new TG4 documentary

People who suffered during the devastating floods which hit Inishowen in 2017 tell their stories in a new documentary on the impact of climate change to be screened on TG4 later this month.
Tuilte airs on TG4 on Wednesday, February 21 at 9.30pm. The film examines how, in Ireland, one of the greatest threats to coastal and low-lying regions is rising sea levels, increased rainfall, and storm events.
The Inishowen Rivers Trust took part in the documentary made by Dearcán Media, part of which was filmed in Clonmany and Buncrana.
Tuilte highlights recent flooding events in places like Inishowen, Belfast, Monaghan and Galway, capturing the human cost and finding out what people are doing in their local area to address the flooding issue.
The film hears from locals in Inishowen who suffered loss and damage in the “Night of the Big Flood” in August 2017. It looks at communities that are attempting sustainable water management practices to mitigate the effects of flooding to slow the flow of water when flooding happens.
Inishowen Rivers Trust volunteers, project officer Trish Murphy, and previous trustee Tomas Lawrence of the Mill River Conservation Group, took part in the filming of the documentary.
The film looks at how the Inishowen Rivers Trust is using nature-based solutions to natural flood management as an alternative or complementary to hard engineering works to slow the flow of water through river catchments and reduce the impacts of flooding in local communities.
The film shows volunteers from the Inishowen Rivers Trust and the Mill River Conservation Group in action on the Crana River, building a natural revetment along the riverbank as well as showcasing the leaky dam natural flood management project in Clonmany.

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Director of the film, Órfhlaith Ní Chearnaigh, is a keen wild swimmer and kayaker in loughs and rivers throughout Ireland. She said she felt a particularly personal connection to the environmental issues raised within the documentary: "Taking action on climate change-caused flooding and sea level rise is one of the most crucial issues we face today. Flooding not only destroys infrastructure and threatens livelihoods, but also pollutes the waterways that we rely on for drinking water, recreation and tourism."
The Inishowen Rivers Trust says it is committed to assisting the community in Clonmany to avoid future damaging floods and has partnered with the All-Ireland Rivers Trust on a new project called Buffer+. This project will extend the natural flood management project reach from farmland further up into the peatlands around Clonmany to help slow the flow of water.