CARLINGFORD Riding School has fallen victim to widespread flooding in the North East after it was inundated by flood waters earlier this week.

The north Louth town was hit by a deluge on Monday with muddy mountain water streaming into the village, exacerbating the flooding.

Carlingford Riding School owner Charlene Meegan was in tears as she told The Irish Field of the desperate situation they faced with no means to pump out the water and ease access to their horses. That is on top of the entire premises being decimated by floodwater including their arenas, feed room, stables and tack room.

“It’s devastating, it’s just heart-breaking,” she said.

“There’s been absolutely nothing done, the councillors are making appeals but there’s nothing being done. Carlingford’s a ghost town.

“We have 13 horses who are going to go without food now in the next 24-hours out in the fields. The ground is not enough to accommodate them.We have got hay in for them but we are in water up over our waist to try to carry it in to them.

“We just need help, we need help from local authorities and farmers to drain this water out, that’s the problem. It’s not a case of having to travel with full tanks - we just need it drained from our yard 50 yards to the sea. Any help at all would be fantastic.”

“We are now on day four and we are standing in four feet of water. The Four Seasons (next door) have rented in expensive pumps which will benefit us but yesterday volunteers came to help the hotel and council stopped them. They are not listening, it’s a disgrace. I can try to get to the horses in the field tomorrow but we can’t even get into the yard with fresh bedding for them - all we can do is throw hay over the ditches to them, we can’t examine them and we can’t open the gates yet.”

Charlene said anyone in a position to help can contact her via the riding school Facebook page.