Residents of Mountcharles – nicknamed Monte Carlo after the French name of the tiny Mediterranean principality – held their own special rally last Friday.

They drove 100 vehicles along the Killybegs Road at Turris hill at almost zero km/h, unlike the high speeds reached in the world-famous annual rally of its French namesake. Traffic ground to a halt less than five kilometres from Tanaiste Mary Coughlan’s Frosses home as the road was blocked in a slow-drive protest aimed at highlighting its treacherous condition.

The demonstrators, who have threatened to repeat the protest every Friday, called on the Tanaiste to take urgent action to secure the realignment of the road being dubbed “the hell highway”.

The demo followed almost a year of lobbying for works to widen the road and remove a left hand bend at Mountcharles, close to where the village bypass ends.

Although there have been no recent high-profile fatal accidents residents complain that because of the shape of the road and the state of its surface it’s unfit to handle the volume of traffic that suddenly appears on it at the end of the state-of-the art bypass. They complain that there are minor collisions almost daily and they argue that it’s only a matter of time before somebody is killed.
Last week alone, three accidents occurred within two days along the notorious stretch when vehicles went out of control and left the road.

The protesters claimed they had been pledged €250,000 prior to the local elections for realignment works but they had since been informed there was no money available.
Charlie and Josie McInern, whose house is on the bend they want removed, said they are prisoners in their own home.
Ms McInern said: “We cannot come out to paint our wall or cut our hedge. Every week a car goes off the road.
“Our son’s wall has been hit three times in the past six months. They live 10 yards away with our three grandchildren and we cannot walk to each other’s houses.”
She added that a woman motorist had a lucky escape the week before when her jeep left the road and overturned.
Ms McInern said: “Only that a couple in a passing car noticed the smoke and turned back, she would probably have been dead.”
Neighbour Kitty Harvey, one of the main organisers of the protest, said action is needed now before there is a fatality.
She added: “Our Tanaiste uses this road every day. All our councillors who travel to Lifford for meetings are using this road but no-one is listening to us.
“It is so sad to think that this is 2009 and we have to stand out on the road to try and save our lives and the lives of our grandchildren.”

Reporter: Paddy Clancy