JUST PECK OFF!

Woodpeckers damaging ESB poles and keep causing power to go out

- DANNY DE VAAL

THE ESB is being forced to replace wooden electricity poles in a small village because woodpeckers keep causing power outages.

Locals in Clogga, which is a townland east of Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, are continuously losing electricity due to the pesky peckers.

Fine Gael TD Joe Cooney revealed there were eight outages in 2025 - two lasting multiple days, while there were three last month alone.

He said the birds have also been flying into the cables and causing transformers to loosen at the top of the poles.

The Clare TD stressed the issue was a “serious concern” and added that when he was initially told about it, he thought it was a ‘joke’.