This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new study led by the ICARUS Climate Research Center at Maynooth University in Ireland has reconstructed a century of Irish sea-level change, revealing a stark acceleration in sea-level rise. The research, titled "A Century of Sea-Level Change in Ireland (1925–2024)" and published in Ocean Science, combines tide-gauge records from six locations, including newly digitized historical records from Cork, Tarbert and Galway.
The study uses measurements dating to 1925 and provides the most comprehensive picture yet of a century of relative sea-level change around Ireland. Current rates of sea-level rise around Ireland are the highest in 100 years. The results show that Ireland is not escaping sea levels that are rising globally due to man-made climate change.
Although the acceleration is widespread, the century-long record also shows important differences between locations. Between 1925 and 2024, the lowest long-term modeled rate was recorded at Belfast, while the highest was at Tarbert, County Kerry. The differences underline the need to account for local and regional conditions, including vertical land movement, environmental factors and measurement effects.
The study also compares Irish sea-level change with global sea-level datasets. From the 1990s, the Irish reconstruction follows an upward trajectory similar to that of the global record. The recent acceleration around Ireland is consistent with wider global sea-level trends.
The study's century-long perspective is a key strength. Digitizing observations previously held on paper records enables researchers to examine the timescales needed to understand long-term coastal change. The findings show that sea-level rise around Ireland has accelerated since 2000, with current rates several times the average for most of the 20th century.
For Ireland's coastal communities, infrastructure providers and planning authorities, understanding this changing rate is important to assessing future coastal risk and adaptation needs. Patrick McLoughlin, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at Maynooth University's ICARUS Climate Research Center, said, "This century-long record gives us a much clearer picture of how sea level around Ireland has changed over time. The key finding is that the rate we are seeing today is very different from the average rate across most of the 20th century.
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