Community spirit prevails as councillors, neighbours and volunteers save the day

WHEN David Letherman and Jim Cunningham (and their pet dog Molly) relocated back to Northern Ireland after many years living in Spain, they made Riverside in Antrim their home.

They had bought the historic property, dating from the late 1800s, from Dawn Aiken (nee Pankhurst), who was born and reared in the house, like her mother before her.

The house in which she and her sisters grew up was once a doctor’s residence and was split into three homes.

You could almost say that the Six Mile Water flows through the Pankhurst family’s veins, such is their attachment to the street where they grew up.

The girls’ parents, Olive and Ernie, with her father hailing from Aldergrove, made the house their family home in 1960 and soon welcomed Janice and her younger sisters Dawn and Elaine.

Olive worked at Greystone Post Office, while Ernie was a well-known butcher in the town and also worked at Lamont’s factory and the old Department of Finance. The girls’ aunt and uncle Emma and Johnny McMaster, lived at Bank House, which is now a block of flats.

Riverside was one of the most affluent parts of the town, built on the thriving industries which sprang up around the water, everyone knew everyone, there were lots of families and it was a very tight knit-community.

Jim and David knew why Dawn was selling up and why her son, who lived in the property, was leaving - the floods of 2008 had left deep scars, with the stress adding to Olive’s dementia diagnosis in later years.

They simply couldn’t take it any more, and planning approval being granted for developments further upstream, which some residents say is compounding the once-sporadic flooding issues, has been a kick in the teeth for the family.

The deluge of late 2024 was the final straw for Dawn, who was given many assurances that ‘something would be done’ and she sold up and said goodbye to a huge part of her family’s history.

Instead of the Six Mile Water being lined with the buildings of industry and workers homes, those people drawn by the linen and paper mills, the fur factory and the brewery, it is now also bounded by intense development. Family homes, riverside living. It’s a lovely concept when the weather is good.

But as far out as Ballyclare, through Templepatrick, Dunadry, Muckamore and into Antrim itself, the removal of trees and the proximity to the floodplain of all those new houses has come at an ever-increasing cost.

The wastewater network, planners keep being told, is at capacity in many areas. NI Water warned of the perilous situation at Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council just weeks ago.

Riverside itself sits on an antiquated dual waste and stormwater system - which was once fine - until all those gallons of rainwater run-off and all those flushing toilets, running taps and showers were added to the mix over many decades.

Dawn and Janice still have a copy of an email sent to South Antrim MLA John Blair in early December 2024 from the DfI, which said: “We have been in contact with Dfl Roads in Antrim and the following arrangements have been put in place.

“If the alarm is triggered by high river level at the Riverside alert station the Rivers Directorate Duty Officer will contact Dfi Roads and they will then contact the Client Rep on duty.

“Duty Client Rep will then contact Greentown Environmental and ask for the 3" inch pump to be deployed to remove surface water off the carriageway and pumped over the wall towards the river. Road closed and flood signs are to be deployed.”

So while Jim and David knew the risks, they fell in love with their new home on the banks of the Six Mile Water and moved in last June, reasonably assured that if the river rose, help would be at hand.

They immediately wanted to become part of the local community and became involved in Riverside and Massereene Resident’s Association.

Because the community spirit in Riverside has never abated.

Janice lives down the street, Dawn is a frequent visitor and everyone still knows everyone else.

And that is why, when Storm Chandra swept in and the river rose more quickly and aggressively than usual on Tuesday, it was local people and elected representatives who came to the rescue.

David was alone at home, while Jim was out working as a Marie Curie nurse, and began calling the DfI at 8.45am when it hit 16 metres - the trigger point. The Antrim Guardian was there as another neighbour took a frantic phonecall from David at around 11am as water gushed into his home from all directions.

Antrim Town DUP Councillor Paul Dunlop was present all day, while Sinn Fein Councillor Lucille O’Hagan was present in the morning and the evening, having gone to attend an emergency meeting on the situation and attend to her son.

Sandbags were delivered to the ‘top’ of Riverside at 11.40am, after David and Jim’s house had already been filling with water. A gully-sucker also appeared, but staff said it would be useless, because the water level was already too high.

With the road breached, a staff member had to try and deliver them on foot, as a regular vehicle could not negotiate the road. By this time, in David’s house, it was too late for sandbags and he called Jim to get home as soon as possible.

With the one-way street blocked to all but the tallest of vehicles and most people trapped on one side or another (although some resourceful folk donned waders to get to work) the Dunkirk spirit kicked in.

The Antrim Guardian helped David get Molly out to safety with Janice down the street, and then made a video of him, expressing his concern about a lack of promised assistance from the authorities.

A tractor did not arrive to carry a pallet of sandbags until 12.30pm. Further sandbag deliveries were made to the other end, at Six Mile Water Mill, where the underground car park was flooded and several vehicles were destroyed. At least one car in Riverside was also swamped.

Across the water in Massereene Street, sandbags were also being delivered, with an exasperated council worker exclaiming: “I haven’t had a cup of tea since seven o’clock this morning!”

Having not long finished cleaning up and repairing after the last deluge in 2025, residents with back gardens facing the river again lost fences and walls. In Gavin Reid’s garden, manhole covers blew, coating everything in raw sewage.

A diesel-generated pump arrived in Riverside at 1pm, but by then the river was approaching the top of the parapet wall.

We approached Greentown Environmental to see at what time they were contacted, and they said: “This is not a location we received from the client on this occasion, perhaps they used their own in-house resource or perhaps even another contractor.”

A large tractor and tanker siphon turned up until 4pm and worked through the night until 4.30am the next morning.

Two similar vehicles were deployed to Meadowside at around 7.30pm. They had not received sandbags until around 3pm. Councillors Dunlop, O’Hagan, Alliance man Neil Kelly and SDLP rep Roisin Lynch also assisted at the Dublin Road estate.

Water had begun rushing towards homes there in the early afternoon, the flood defences constructed after 2008 proving ineffective, meaning a small number of residents had to leave their homes. Search and rescue teams also turned up to Meadowside on Tuesday night.

A number of houses were also flooded in Dunadry, one inundated with up to four feet of water, which we hope to report on next week.

Back in Riverside, residents and those from Six Mile Water Mill helped carry and pile up sandbags at each other’s homes, using wheelbarrows and their car boots - men, women and kids off school for the day.

The river was now raging over 17 metres. Margaret Madden’s cellar flooded and the river encroached through decking and into utility rooms and kitchens.

But, during the afternoon, volunteers arrived too. Local tradesman Owen Galbraith was seen zipping about in his car all day, helping to clear fallen trees all over the town and transport sandbags.

Matt Flanagan, an off duty firefighter, had seen our video of David and told us his wife had ordered him to ‘go and help’. By this time, the water in David and Jim’s house was above the knee.

Neighbours had brought them soup and sandwiches, wading through the flood to pass them over.

Tea and biscuits were passed around outside, while neighbours popped in and out of each other’s homes to escape the biting wind and watch from out the windows.

As darkness fell, Matt stayed in the house with the couple, before a specialist NIFRS team turned up and brought the pair to safety in a dinghy, with a crowd of concerned locals waiting to welcome them and carry their luggage.

Then it was off to Joanne Elder’s house to warm up and get a cup of tea and be reunited with Molly.

David, Jim and their dog were then driven by Jackie Marrion (who had cleverly parked in Moylena Grove) to temporary accommodation, before making plans to return in the morning to assess then damage.

By then, the national media had descended on the scene, the pair having attained celebrity status after their dramatic rescue.

Council staff had been out bright and early with the street cleaners. In Massereene Street, the landlord of a number of properties sent his men in to help the clean-up operation.

Word got out that the Infrastructure Minister was coming. What Liz Kimmins got to hear was that her Department could have been much quicker to respond to the distress calls - but what she saw was how the people of Antrim rally round each other when help from the official channels doesn’t come.

Riverside and Massereene Street Residents Association (RAMS), which has been calling for flood alleviation measures and a stop to riverside development for nearly two years, is inviting residents from Dunadry, Muckamore and Meadowside to a meeting in All Saints Parish Centre this Wednesday night to try to galvanise for better emergency response and to gather ideas going forward.

Retired east Belfast engineer Terry Madill, who passed away last October, had been planning to bring the communities of the town together in a project he wanted to call ‘The Spirit of Antrim’ in the months before his death. He had been full of ideas for an engineering solutions to flooding problems. While Terry is no longer here to see his plans come to fruition, RAMS hopes that through community partnership, ‘The Spirit of Antrim’ will indeed live on.

David and Jim meanwhile, enjoyed dinner with Dawn and Janice on Thursday night, because that’s what Antrim (and Riverside) folk do.