Brittas Bay in the dark for Christmas

January 2003

BRITTAS Bay experienced yet another black Christmas as over 100 homes were left without power on St Stephen’s Day.

The power cut which left residents of Dunganstown, Ballyflannagan and Castletimon in the dark once again was due to an underground cable fault at Dunganstown according to the ESB.

Some areas were left without electricity for up to 20 hours on St Stephen’s Day and local residents were left frustrated as for some this was their third Christmas without power in recent years.

One resident, Gareth Farrell told the Wicklow People, the outage had destroyed Christmas.

‘I have lived here for eight years and this is my third Christmas without power,’ he remarked.

He said that he was told that emergency services could not reach the area to work on the fault earlier as it was in a remote area of Brittas Bay and emergency services did not operate in the dark.

A spokesperson for the ESB explained that the specialist cable crews with specialised equipment were required to repair underground cables on St Stephen’s Day.

She accepted it was the third Christmas without electricity for residents of Brittas Bay and apologised.