Killardry Bridge, 2014 to 2026: a €450 parapet repair the Council said in February 2026 was still not carried out

Killardry Bridge · the inspection record · source-led

The bridge record, in the Council's own documents

4 March 2014 — Principal inspection (Eirspan, TS-LP3101-001.00). Component 4, Parapets/Safety barrier: "Some loose/missing stones and some repointing is required on both parapets." Costed works: masonry repointing, year 2017, €250; masonry repair, year 2017, €200. Minimum parapet height 0.55 m. Approach skew 90°. — the document record

20 June 2024 — Maintenance inspection. Overall "Warning". Parapets rated "Good". No comments, no work follows. — what the Council knew

21 January 2025 — Engineering inspection (TY-L3151-B-010). Overall "Significant Damage". Capping of the downstream wall "partly removed"; four areas of missing stonework upstream, two downstream. The same report records "Is Signage Present? No." — what the Council knew

7 February 2025. The national rural local-road default speed limit changed from 80 to 60 km/h.

24 April 2025. Bronagh English, 18, died at the bridge — 93 calendar days after the "Significant Damage" rating. The documents held record no repair and no signage in that interval; they are not proof that no later measure was ever taken.

18 February 2026 — the Council's FOI internal-review decision. "Accordingly, the repair works listed in the report have not been carried out to date." "Typically, funding is allocated to fund works on 5 to 10 bridges each year." — the internal-review decision

The procedure the Council's own manual sets out

The Bridge Asset Management System guidelines describe the response to an immediate public-safety risk: the MD Engineer to check the structure in person and determine whether immediate temporary measures "to make the road safe, such as signing and guarding, are required." The public record does not show who received the January inspection or what assessment followed. Whether any local response was required or made remains an evidence question — the 93-day record.

The same district, the same year

In January 2026, at the Tipperary–Cahir–Cashel Municipal District, Councillor Declan Burgess put on record that "Over €400,000 now has been given to the greenway project from Cahir to Cashel, and we still haven't got a design, we still haven't got a route selected, and there's been no further consultations." The District Engineer undertook to bring a report to the members. Active Travel funding; a separate stream from bridge funding — the greenway record.

What this page establishes, and what it does not

It establishes, from the Council's own dated documents, that a €450 parapet repair was listed in 2014, that the bridge carried a "Significant Damage" rating with no signage recorded in January 2025, and that on the Council's own 18 February 2026 account the listed works had not been carried out to that date.
It does not establish who received the January 2025 inspection, what was decided, or that any named person caused Bronagh's death. It does not claim greenway money could have been spent on the bridge.

The family's position: Bronagh's family believes that the measure the Council's own manual describes — signing and guarding at a damaged, unsigned parapet — would have been enough. As they said on record, "One small cone and she'd be with us" (Tipperary Live, October 2025). The repair the Council's 2014 inspection costed at €450 was, on the Council's own February 2026 account, still not carried out; in the same district a greenway had reached €400,000 of spend with no route. Those are separate funding streams and the family does not say one should have paid for the other; it asks how the district's attention was set. That is presented as the family's position, not as a finding about any person's knowledge, motive, responsibility or causation.

Sources

South Tipperary Eirspan Bridges Inventory and Principal Inspection Report, TS-LP3101-001.00, O'Connor Sutton Cronin for South Tipperary County Council, 4 March 2014 (held on file)
Tipperary County Council maintenance inspection 20 June 2024 and engineering inspection TY-L3151-B-010, 21 January 2025 (held on file; published readback linked above)
Tipperary County Council FOI internal-review decision, Roads FOI 02/26 (TCC FOI 174/25), 18 February 2026, Kieran Malone, Senior Engineer
Bridge Asset Management System Guidelines v1.1 (roadguidelines.ie), p. 55
Irish Independent, 28 January 2026; Travel Extra; Ireland Live (greenway reports, linked on the councilwatch page)
Tipperary Live / The Nationalist, parents' interview, October 2025

Factual record. No finding of causation or responsibility is made here.

District	2022 population	Fatal-collision records	People killed	People killed per 100,000 per year
Clonmel	25,003	10	13	8.67
Tipperary–Cahir–Cashel	44,532	21	23	8.61
Carrick-on-Suir	20,191	7	7	5.78
Nenagh	40,879	11	12	4.89
Thurles	37,290	8	8	3.58

Year	Tipperary–Cahir–Cashel	County Tipperary	State
2018	6	10	134
2019	4	13	140
2020	1	7	141
2021	3	10	132
2022	3	7	152
2023	6	16	179

Rank	County	2022 population	People killed	Fatal-collision records	People killed per 100,000 per year
1	Monaghan	65,288	25	—	6.38
2	Tipperary	167,895	63	—	6.25
3	Donegal	167,084	53	—	5.29
4	Roscommon	70,259	22	—	5.22
5	Louth	139,703	41	—	4.89
6	Cavan	81,704	23	—	4.69
7	Mayo	137,970	38	—	4.59
8	Offaly	83,150	22	—	4.41
9	Kerry	156,458	41	—	4.37
10	Kilkenny	104,160	27	—	4.32
11	Leitrim	35,199	9	—	4.26
12	Longford	46,751	11	—	3.92
13	Westmeath	96,221	22	—	3.81
14	Clare	127,938	29	—	3.78
15	Meath	220,826	49	—	3.70
16	Sligo	70,198	15	—	3.56
17	Limerick	209,536	44	—	3.50
18	Wexford	163,919	34	—	3.46
19	Galway	277,737	49	—	2.94
20	Carlow	61,968	9	—	2.42
21	Cork	584,156	83	—	2.37
22	Laois	91,877	12	—	2.18
23	Waterford	127,363	15	—	1.96
24	Wicklow	155,851	18	—	1.92
25	Kildare	247,774	25	—	1.68
26	Dublin	1,458,154	99	—	1.13