Residents of the direct provision centre in Ballyhaunis say they fear being moved to a hotel in Ballina which has been the focus of local protests over its conversion into an international protection accommodation service (IPAS) centre. Rispa Mwangi, a Kenyan national living seven years in the Ballyhaunis centre, said she is afraid of protests […]
Author: markgodfrey
It’s the summer of 2008 and the concrete has barely set in the grounds of a Catholic seminary in Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million people in Hebei province in northern China and also the centre of Chinese Catholicism. In 2008 China is a giant building site, in the midst of a decades-long splurge of […]
The Community Hall in Ballyhaunis was brimming recently with talent to celebrate International Women’s Day. On the stage, Ukrainian dance troupe, Romanian classical guitarist playing lead, a Filipino adding rhythm and vocals alongside a German soprano. A Lithuanian singer Aretha Franklin’s “You Make Me Feel Like a Woman”. The acts are introduced by the hostess, […]
Categories
Tour of bog reveals fragile ecosystem
Patches of sitka spruce which intermittently line the road winding north from Ballyhaunis in the Ballaghadreen direction are evergreen clues to the recent decades of rural economics and policy making which encouraged the planting of peatlands with fast growing coniferous trees. The prevailing thought was timber harvesting offered a means to exploit otherwise idle, un-exploitable […]
One of the more striking data sets in the recent national census concerned Ballyhaunis. The town was shown to have one of the fastest growing populations in the Western region according to the 2022 census which shows the town’s population rose 14.3 percent –adding 438 people, to 3,495 – between 2016 and 2022. By contrast […]
Anyone browsing popular property website Daft.ie during Christmas might be surprised to see a Ballyhaunis house listed at a monthly rent of EUR1,450, a figure more commonly seen in Galway or even Dublin. Granted the property is a lovingly restored old period home in Abbeyquarter – with a B level BER rating suggesting comfort and […]
Categories
Boosting soya sector in China
With the inflationary impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and growing tensions with western trading partners, China has been pushing to boost soyabean output and increase food security. Food security concerns have driven China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to push Chinese soyabean output in the past two years as tension grows with its main western […]
Categories
Stonemason keeps alive a rural tradition
Dominic Keogh is a master stone mason keen to preserve the craft of dry-stone walling, once the knowledge of every farmer in Mayo. On the way to meet him recently in Spell’s Bar in Ballaghadreen I pass mansion sized houses with limestone cladding facades and sandstone pillars, suggesting stonework as a local marker of aspiration […]
Two busy pubs run by second generation young publicans in the Mayo Roscommon border country suggest the demise of the rural hostelry may be exaggerated as locals over compensate for time under lock down. The peaty aroma of a turf fire greets the visitor to Duffy’s bar in Kilmovee on a Sunday afternoon recently. […]
Categories
Three churches, three traditions
A few minutes’ walk from the imposing limestone grandeur of St Patrick’s Church, the Assembly of God Mission in Ballyhaunis is conspicuous by its location, a commercial building shared with a furniture store and a gym. Few people knowing they’re passing a church when they walk down the side lane known as Barrack St. In […]