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, […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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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. […]
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Beef deal with China not all it seems
There’s been so much positivity and expectation around Ireland being allowed into the Chinese beef market. It’s easy to be optimistic given China imported 688,557 tons – more than the equivalent of Irish beef export capacity – of frozen beef in 2017, compared to 60,524 tons in 2012 so obviously there’s a market if you’re […]