Local Notes: All the latest news from Ballyhaunis
Eastern Gaels under 12 team hosted a blitz recently at the club's Brickens grounds.
Few of those interested in agriculture will have missed the inexorable rise of the John Deere on local roads in recent years. The hulking green-yellow machines, built by the American company of the same name, have displaced the Massey Ferguson as the most common tractor marque on farms around Ballyhaunis.
What are the economics of buying a shiny, big John Deere and how do local farmers afford the purchase of a machine often jocularly referred to as “John Dear”?
One Ballyhaunis farmer explained how he recently spent €147,000 on a new 130 horsepower John Deere tractor, on top of a second-hand tractor he traded in. The farmer explained that he put down €50,000 in cash on the purchase of the John Deere, with the rest of the price to be paid off over five years at approximately €20,000 per year.
The farmer explained that he was attracted by John Deere’s financing offer.
“I was offered zero interest finance. If someone stops paying it makes it simple for the banks to repossess the tractor because the value will always be more if you have made a substantial downpayment.”
The farmer pays back €20,000 per year in one lump sum.
“I can’t do a monthly payment because my income comes in dribs and drabs, depending on when I sell cattle.
“It has front axle suspension and cab suspension so it’s more comfortable to drive.”
The cost of the tractor can be written off against farm income. The minute you drive the tractor out on the road after buying its value drops from €147,000 to €130,000 as it’s then a second hand vehicle.
John Deere is the best-selling tractor brand in Ireland with 23.2% market share in 2024 compared to 17.6% for Massey Ferguson and 17.6% for New Holland. The American-owned John Deere firm builds tractors for the European market at its plant in Mannheim, Germany.
John Deere has reached critical mass in the Irish market.
"It means if you go to sell your tractor in five or ten years you’ll be likely to sell the John Deere a lot quicker than a Massey Ferguson," explained the farmer. "There’s so many of them around now that you can easily get parts.”
Ireland’s new tractor market for the year-to-date to the end of May 2026 recorded 1,431 new tractor registrations, which is a 12% increase over the same period in 2025, according to data from the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMA).
Those marveling at the talents of the Argentine football team during the World Cup will have noted the many European sounding names of the players, descendants of the mainly southern European and German emigrants who moved to Argentina when the country was one of the wealthiest in the southern hemisphere.
Irish emigrants also bypassed New York for Buenos Aires, among them William Corr of Burrish near Irishtown who founded a newspaper for the English-speaking population of Buenos Aires in the late 19th and early 20th century. Between 1860 and 1930, exploitation of the highly fertile Pampas plains drove economic growth and by 1913 Argentina was one of the world’s wealthiest countries in GDP per capita terms, a status it lost in more recent decades due to hyperinflation.
Jim Godfrey of Meelick, also near Irishtown, became a large farmer on the Pampas after arriving in the country with a cargo of sheep he was entrusted to mind for an English farmer. Godfrey, like Corr, never returned home but their story is recounted in the ‘History of Irishtown’ booklet published in the late 1980s by Irishtown Community Council and FAS.
Dramatic growth in Ballyhaunis house prices is demonstrated by the Houseprices.ie index, drawn from the House Price Register, which shows the median price in Ballyhaunis went from €90,800 in 2020 to €175,000 in 2026.
The median price in Ballyhaunis is lower than Castlebar (€290,000) or Westport (€305,000) but is cheaper than Swinford (€167,000) and Belmullet (€164,000).
Ballyhaunis meanwhile has lost its place as the most affordable Eircode for property purchases in Ireland in the most recent national Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The index showed the median price paid across all buyer types for all types of houses (new and second hand) in Ballyhaunis was €180,000. The median price in Castlerea (the most affordable Eircode in Ireland for property purchases) was considerably cheaper at €155,000 while Swinford was €152,000.
Based on data in the 12 months to April, the RPPI showed prices increased by 6.2% nationally in the period but price growth was strongest outside Dublin in towns like Ballyhaunis.
Property prices in Dublin rose by 5.4% and prices outside Dublin were up by 6.9% in April compared with April 2025.
An Post has lobbied vigorously against a new charge on parcels coming from outside the European Union. From July 1, a €3 charge will be payable on each item ordered on sites like Temu and Shein, whose packages of low-cost goods from China have been a boon to mail volume at An Post, which closed its Ballyhaunis sorting office this spring.
Irish consumers have enthusiastically embraced Chinese e-commerce portals like Temu but the EU has become increasingly strident in its worries over surging Chinese imports which are putting Europe’s manufacturing sector as well as local retailers – and government tax income – in grave danger.
EU imports from China are rising much faster in physical volume than in value, suggesting China is lowering its prices to gain market share in Europe. In the January-April period of this year import value was up 4% year on year, while quantity rose by 12.8%.
China meanwhile is buying less from the EU, quashing hopes that it would become a great market for European farm products. In the year to date, the EU shipped around five times more agri-food products to the United Kingdom than to China and 2.6 times more to the United States.
China is seeking to export more because of weak demand at home, related in part to a bursting of the country’s giant real estate bubble. Recent retail sales growth in China is a pale shadow of what it was ten years ago.
A newly announced Uisce Éireann investment in its Ballyhaunis wastewater plant could be good news for the local Dalgan River given that in recent years emissions from the sewage treatment plant into the river exceeded statutory limits.
Uisce Éireann last week announced it had lodged a planning application to expand the Ballyhaunis plant’s capacity by 50% “from its current population equivalent (PE) of 4,000 to a PE of 6,600 once works are complete".
“This will allow for an improved service for existing customers in Ballyhaunis, while also allowing for new development in the town in the years ahead,” noted the announcement. “The upgrade will also help to safeguard the environment of the local area.”
Various reports from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in recent years suggest that the Ballyhaunis plant did not meet statutory requirements with regard to water leaving the facility into the Dalgan River into which treated water flows. A 2025 report on Uisce Éireann website said the plant was “not compliant with the ELVs [Emission Limit Value, which refers to the maximum amount of pollutants that can be released into the environment by a particular source] set in the wastewater discharge licence for ortho-Phosphate”.
Asked by the if the planned investment will bring the Ballyhaunis plant in line with statutory requirements, an Uisce Éireann spokesperson said: The planned upgrades to the Ballyhaunis [waste water treatement plant] will end instances of non-compliance with the ELVs in the EPA wastewater discharge license, and will bring the plant into full compliance with the license. The planned upgrades are crucial to safeguard the future compliance of the plant and to protect the environment of Ballyhaunis and the surrounding area.”
A local citizen science group organised by Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns and the Local Area Waters Programme has shown the Dalgan’s waters to be of ‘fair’ rather than ‘good’ quality in recent years due to the increased presence of nutrients from agriculture, industry and domestic wastewater treatment systems.
Members of the group attended a training hosted by the Local Authorities Water Programme (LAWPRO) in Kiltimagh recently organised to further upskill community bodies to monitor river water across the region.
Laura Dinraths, who leads the Ballyhaunis Citizen Science group, explained: “I gave a talk on how we set up the Dalgan monitoring programme, the pressures that could be affecting the river and how we could now visit new sites to locate where these pressures are coming from and where the river is not affected.
“We talked about the importance of data and obtaining river quality data on rivers that may not be monitored using local knowledge etcetera.
“We discussed revised guidance about site selection, technique and standardised recording, using a new app.”
The Ballyhaunis group will be sampling the water of the Dalgan this summer and invite any member of the community to join them. Contact ballyhaunistidytowns@gmail.com for more information.
The evolution of local rural commerce was recounted by members of the Ballyhaunis Community Council heritage club during the group’s recent fortnightly meeting. The rise and fall of rural shops were recalled by former customers of the shops which once served nearly every townland of Ballyhaunis.
Deliveries of bacon from the Claremorris Bacon Factory and dispatches of batched loaves from Hanley’s Bakery were remembered by residents of the Brickens and Logboy areas while purchases of paraffin oil and cigarettes at shops in Kiltybo and Brackloon were also described during interviews filmed at the Community Hall for the project titled ‘Windows Into History’, which will be displayed and screened at the hall during National Heritage Week in August.
Anyone who’d like to contribute memories can contact 087-9777899 or ballyhauniscommunitycouncil@gmail.com.
John Cleary, the manager of the Cork senior football team which played Mayo in Croke Park on Saturday, has family connections to the Tulrahan area.
Eugene Delaney in Brickens explained that the Cleary family originated in Redhill near Tulrahan. One of them, Henry, moved to Claremorris where he managed the An Post sorting office for some years. His other brother, John Cleary's father, moved to Cork.
Eugene Delaney recalls being on a trip to Cork with the An Post Claremorris football team some years ago. Henry Cleary took some time out to go see his nephew John, the now Cork manager, playing.
Henry Cleary's own son, Sean worked at Avonmore, now Dawn Meats, in Ballyhaunis for some years.
John Cleary was on the Cork team that defeated Mayo in the All-Ireland Senior Football Final in 1989.
