Month: June 2020

For days now ever since we learned that Noah Donahoe was missing, we have all invested in the hope that he was safe and well and would soon be found.
He became our son, our bother, our family and we willed him to be ok.
The community bonded together and everyone set out to look for him. It was a concerted effort  and some came long distances to join in.  There was always a hope that he would be found alive and well, but that was not to be.

This morning we heard the sad news that Noah had been found. No one knows what happened other than those who are dealing with the situation.

But that didn’t stop the faceless gutless key board warriors crawling out of the woodwork with their theories of what had happened to Noah. All without foundation and intended to rise tension and maximise the hurt that the family are suffering at this time.

They have no shame in posting false information. Passing on something they have heard from a friend of a friend of a friend.

All the efforts of a community who had come together to find Noah tarnished with the comments appearing on social media.

Please stop and think before you try to seek a bit of attention by pretending you ‘ are in the know’ In actual fact it’s none of your business and I’m sure the family are hurting even more with each new conspiracy theory.

Whatever happened, a lovely young boy has been taken too soon and a family is grieving. My condolences to his mother and his family.

May his memory be a blessing.

The Comber Greenway is a 7 mile traffic free section of the National Cycle Network running from Belfast to Comber along the old railway line which closed in 1950. It is a flat bitmac linear path.

Before the pandemic it was a quiet peaceful path to walk along, to listen to the sound of the birds and to count the number of discarded poo bags along the route.

But not anymore. It has turned into a racing track where cyclists donned out in the latest apparel disregard the right of walkers to be able to walk without being knocked down. 

Gordon and I used to walk it most days. Going from one section to another. But no longer. We have been driven away by cyclists.

Now don’t get me wrong many members of my family are cyclists but it only takes a few to act like Tour de France competitors to make it unsafe for others.
For the slightly hard of hearing there is no noise to signal that a cyclist is approaching and very few appear to know how to ring their bell. A gush of air as they pass and you jump into the ditch to avoid being mowed down.

I have just read an account on our Nextdoor app that a young child on a bicycle was knocked over by an adult cyclist on the Greenway at the weekend,  both ending up in the ditch, the child winded and distressed. This was backed up by other complaints of a similar nature. 

With the summer months ahead what is the solution?  No one wants to ban cyclists but neither do we want to end up with a fatality. 

I don’t have a solution other than to have cycling hours so that walkers get the chance to walk without fear of being knocked down. But I would  appeal to the cyclists to be more considerate. You know who you are. Now take the joggers …..no, don’t even start me on joggers.