Maynooth University: Irish sea-level rise reached ~6 mm per year in 2024, tide-gauge data show
A century of tide-gauge records from 1925 to 2024, including newly digitised southwest series, shows annual sea-level rise around Ireland above 4 mm per year since 2000.
A team led by the ICARUS Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University has reconstructed relative sea-level change around Ireland for 1925–2024. The work was published on 29 October 2026 in Ocean science, an observational study with lead author Patrick McLoughlin doi.org
Ocean sciencedoi.orgOpen source ↗. Researchers from the University of Limerick, University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin also contributed.
Digitised sea-level records longer than 40 years are rare in Ireland and mostly confined to the northeast. The authors combined previously undocumented records from the southwest, including historical marigrams (paper tide-gauge traces) that were digitised, with well-documented datasets. According to the release, the study draws on tide-gauge records from six locations, with newly digitised series from Cork, Tarbert and Galway doi.org
Ocean sciencedoi.orgOpen source ↗.
Regional rates and variability
The authors report clear regional differences. Long-term mean instantaneous rates, which represent the modelled rate of sea-level change at each site, range from about 1.07 mm per year in the north to 2.48–2.74 mm per year in the south and west. The highest value was observed at Cork, at 2.74 mm per year doi.org
Ocean sciencedoi.orgOpen source ↗.
The regional mean for 1925–2024 is 1.96 ± 0.1 mm per year. After accounting for Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), the slow vertical movement of land after the last ice age, it falls to 1.88 ± 0.1 mm per year doi.org
Ocean sciencedoi.orgOpen source ↗.
Acceleration after 2000
Annual rates were below 1 mm per year during 1925–2000 and above 4 mm per year during 2000–2024. They peaked at about 6 mm per year in 2024, which the authors describe as a pronounced 21st-century acceleration doi.org
Ocean sciencedoi.orgOpen source ↗. The study also compares the Irish reconstruction with global sea-level datasets. According to the release, the Irish record follows an upward trajectory similar to the global one from the 1990s.
Method
The records were corrected for atmospheric effects and datum changes. GIA was then accounted for within a Bayesian framework. The authors state that the resulting historical series provide a basis for reconstructing regional sea-level rise and for putting coastal risk assessment in context doi.org
Ocean sciencedoi.orgOpen source ↗. They also note the need to consider local and regional conditions, including vertical land movement and measurement effects.
