Farewell to Frenchpark as new road opens

The new road is – literally – opening up ahead of us. You will have heard that the first 7km of the new N5 through Roscommon opened a few weeks back. You may even have driven on it. If you have, you will appreciate what a positive improvement it is for the west. If you haven’t driven on it yet, you will certainly appreciate the upgrade when you do. It’s been a long time coming, and more road improvements like it are needed. But it’s a really good start.

In the immediate term, the opening of this first stretch means that the days of travelling through Frenchpark are over. It isn’t hard to calculate how much of the traffic which went through that village over the years was heading elsewhere - the simple answer is: the vast majority. If you asked me how many times I went through, I could point you to the night sky on a clear night and suggest you count. For this driver therefore, and for so many others, this article is a Farewell to Frenchpark.

And by the time the full 34km of new road opens towards the back end of next year, Frenchpark won’t be the only place that traffic - and this driver - leaves behind.

Bellanagare, Tulsk and Strokestown will no longer be on the itinerary for most people heading into and out of our corner of the west. Of course they will remain a destination for many, but as markers on the journey they will become places in our memory, leaving our collective experience in the way Kinnegad, Enfield, Leixlip and Lucan have done before. Oh those days. Anyone from my generation will remember all those occasions when we were stuck in Enfield. And that wasn’t because of a fuel protest.

In fairness, we never got fully stuck in Frenchpark - except for those traffic lights of course - but it did slow us all down. And the same with all the other places. The volume of traffic must likewise have been nothing but a pain for the residents.

That it has taken so long to get to this stage is remarkable. To have a national primary road going directly through a town or village is like being time-warped back to the world of de Valera. We are an advanced services-based economy, and we have been travelling on roads designed for the pre-modern world.

But enough of that negative talk. In an unusual angle for a commentator in 2026 Ireland, let us focus on the good. For the new road is a massive change and improvement. As you enter onto that 7km stretch, you go from a road with nothing but bends, and rough and narrow surfaces, to straight, smooth and hard shoulder. Roll out the remaining 27km is what we all say.

Everything in life being relative, the new stretch is best experienced when heading west because you come from the old bad road onto the new good one. Travelling it in this direction mirrors the principle that when on holidays you should leave the best hotel you stay in for your last few nights.

When it fully opens, that consideration will be at an end and we will have a decent stretch of road from the Shannon right into the heart of the county. The new road will be safer and more pleasant to drive on. Travel will be more fuel efficient and less tough on your vehicle. A huge amount of time will be saved, particularly the seemingly endless minutes stuck behind a tractor on a Friday evening, at 7pm. One assumes that the tractors of Roscommon will be able to use the old road now in peace and not need to be out on the new one. Is that a fair enough thing to hope for?

The trucks and lorries will be on the new road, and rightly so. For this new road makes transporting goods in and out of the west so much easier and more efficient and less expensive. The crucial economic factor for the west as a region is how we enable the businesses who generate wealth to carry out their trade - and export their goods - more straightforwardly. This new road is good for the businesses we have now and for the ones of the future.

For those coming to visit our region, it will mean that both the reality and the perception of the journey will have shortened. This is very positive news for our tourist orientated businesses. It is also great for those who love a visit from relatives in Dublin at the weekend, or appreciate when people from across the Shannon attend a funeral midweek.

Welcome and all as this road is, more needs doing. The new stretch will bring us to the Shannon, but as all N4/N5 users know, the Longford to Mullingar stretch really needs addressing. That section combines the Mayo and Sligo traffic - including those Ballina and west Sligo folk that make the N59 the start point of their Dublin journey. It is in desperate need of a total overhaul, and that’s crucial to us, even though it’s outside the county. Plans are progressing but a start date is a long way off. There is of course also the not insignificant matter of the N26, as well as improving the flow – and the safety – when travelling through the spine of the county on the N5.

Better connections to centres of population and economic activity are critical to the future. If you doubt that, ask why the population of South Mayo is going up, and the population of North Mayo is not. The proximity of Galway City and its medical technology industries is a big part of that.

We need our whole county to be better connected to where the wealth and the economic dynamism is. This is why we also need the N17 improved to both Galway and Sligo – and those improvements will be mostly in Galway and Sligo. Connections are everything, and begging the pardon of those who make the rail argument, in rural parts of the world, great roads leading to cities give a better return.

And when we get new road infrastructure - the dual carriageway to Westport comes to mind - can we spend less time giving out about it? It’s not a good look when we are also saying we are underdeveloped.

So let’s celebrate this new development in Roscommon and welcome it with open arms. When it is fully open it should also end one of the oldest arguments in most parts of Mayo, because when heading for Dublin, the N5 will then be your only man.