Sky News reports that last-minute funding was made available to save an island’s cable car service in Ireland, which is currently closed for repairs.

Dursey Island, West Cork will be connected to the mainland via a cable car from 1969. A replacement ferry service is now in place.

The car crosses 250m above the swirling Dursey Sound which is notoriously dangerous for boats to safely cross or dock.

For nervous passengers, the iconic cable car was packed often with sheep or cows. A bottle of holy water and a prayer were attached to the wall.

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Recent storms have damaged infrastructure and will cause it to be inaccessible for nine months.

Despite months and months of negotiation, the two permanent residents of the area and eight farmers who use the cable car daily faced the possibility of becoming stranded.

Heather Humphreys, Ireland’s Rural Development minister, will announce that funding has been made available to Cork County Council for the purchase of a ferry service. This is to relieve locals.

Joe Sullivan, a cattle farmer, was born on Dursey Island. He now lives on the mainland and uses the cable car to commute to tend to his animals.

He stated that it was a “fantastic” day for the islanders, whose entire way of living was at risk. It was shocking.

Mr. Sullivan praised the Irish government’s intervention, but said that the details of the contract for the ferry operator were still to be finalized.

He said, “It’ll be amazing.”

But is it an everyday ferry or a 7-day-a week ferry? All those details will need to be sorted out, but it will at least be a ferry, which is amazing.”

Danny Collins, a local councillor, said that it was “good news” and that he had been leading protests for the benefit of locals. It is something I welcome, but we will have to work together with the stakeholders, Dursey residents, to ensure a full ferry service.

Cable car is a very popular tourist attraction.

It’s not just Ireland’s only cable-car, but it is also one of few European cables cars that crosses the Atlantic, at the end of the South-Westerly Beara Penninsula. This finger of land extends into the Atlantic Ocean.