Local Notes: All the latest news from Ballyhaunis
Prizewinners in the 'Play in Pink' Golf Scramble at Ballyhaunis Golf Club, which was held to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Research Institute. Picture: Glynn's Photography
The current warm weather brings its own issues for local vegetable growers. Crops like onions, broccoli and cauliflower don’t benefit from hot weather with heat often prompting them to bolt or go to seed, explained Sebastian Dmilanowski, who produces 25 different vegetables in his garden and polytunnels in Larganboy.
Other plants like tomatoes and peppers by contrast love the sun “and start ripening abundantly”, explained Sebastian who sells under the Mannin Lake Farm brand. “The past few weeks growing conditions are very good although it's nearly 40â°C in the polytunnels when the sun is out which makes watering our main task,” he explained.
The warm spell has helped Mannin Lake Farm catch up after poor growing conditions earlier in the year.
“Wet and cold conditions during spring delayed our preparations of soil and growing beds, since then most crops are around two to three weeks behind compared to last year,” said Sebastian.
The Brackloon School and District Reunion Group is organising a bus tour on August 20th as part of the 'Clans of Mayo' initiative by Mayo County Council.
The bus tour commences from Ballyhaunis at 9am before taking in the Foxford Mills, Lahardane Titanic Memorial Park and the Jackie Clarke Centre and Distillery in Ballina later in the day. The tour concludes with a three-course meal at the Gateway Hotel in Swinford, arriving back in Ballyhaunis at 9pm. The total cost for the tour and meal is €55 per person.
Anyone who wants to book the tour can contact committee members, Susan Hoban at 086-1632514, Mary Finan at 086-8297470, Kathleen Henry at 087-6572864 or Marion Regan at 086-3858931. Bookings close on Friday, August 7th.
The focus of the Clans of Mayo project is to encourage community interaction and visitor attraction, similar to the acclaimed Gathering 2013, explained committee member Seamus Kenny.
“The committee is especially pleased to extend an invite to those who have connections in the area or whose ancestry came from the general locality to come and join us for this celebration,” he said.
Updates will be posted on the ‘Brackloon Reunion’ Facebook page.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has confirmed that over 400 rural homes and premises in the Ballyhaunis area will soon be able to access high speed broadband. The switch-on will allow for homes in the area to use the Internet at speeds of 500 megabytes of download speed, comparable to major urban centres.
To get some sense of the potential impact of the NBI scheme, look at the increase in speeds on offer: up to five years ago many rural homes in Ballyhaunis were on a five to seven megabytes (MB) per second download speed. Mobile broadband brought that speed up to 12MB/second, some way off the requirements of modern industry.
In the past winter and spring, road users got used to seeing contractors topping hedges to clear any interference with cables delivering broadband while mini diggers were seen digging trenches in areas unserved by poles, many of which were newly installed by Eir who rent the use of the poles to NBI.
Some townlands will have to wait till September to get onto the new high speed service via one of the various NBI approved providers who are typically charging €50 to €60 per month.
Yet the switch-on of the service is very low key considering the National Broadband Plan (NBP) was such a major political issue a decade ago in the run up to the signing of the €3 billion contract with National Broadband Ireland (NBI), a consortium given the contract to roll out a high speed and future proofed broadband network to homes and public buildings across the country.
It will be very interesting to see if the switching on of broadband has the kind of transformative impact on the wider Ballyhaunis area that rural electrification had in the last century. If high speed Internet cables are the blood vessels of the modern economy then surely this will open up demand for properties in rural townlands.
Efforts to monitor and protect the River Dalgan, which flows through Ballyhaunis, will be highlighted at a community information meeting in Claremorris on July 14.
Starting at 7pm the meeting, open to all, is hosted by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), working on behalf of Ireland’s 31 local authorities to protect and restore good water quality in rivers, lakes, estuaries, ground and coastal water.
The meeting, at the McWilliam Park Hotel, will hear about LAWPRO’s broader efforts to address water quality and water related issues in the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District. Water quality in the River Dalgan has been classified as “fair” in recent samplings by both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by the Under Ireland’s Water Action Plan, formerly the River Basin Management Plan.
LAWPRO works in areas where water quality requires protection or restoration. Ballyhaunis and outlying areas through which the Dalgan flows have been designated by LAWPRO as Priority Areas for Action (PAAs), to implement targeted water quality improvements.
At the meeting, LAWPRO experts will outline the work that has been carried out and what is being planned as part of the organisation’s Water Action Plan. There will also be opportunities for the public to ask questions and talk to members of the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP).
Aside from informing locals on efforts being made, the meeting also aims “to encourage as much engagement as possible with all stakeholders right across the community, including key agencies, special interest groups, voluntary, public and private sectors,” noted LAWPRO.â¯â¯â¯
The Mass in St Patrick’s Church in Ballyhaunis for the late Ted Webb and deceased team mates on Saturday, August 1st, is now confirmed for 11.30am. Ballyhaunis GAA will host the final of the Ted Webb Cup later that day, 50 years since the untimely passing of the Gaelic football star.
Could greater air connectivity be driving up property prices and rents? That’s the interesting thesis of a new Europe-wide report which found that greater air traffic into a region means higher prices for properties with the increased prevalence of short-term lets to tourists taking houses out of the rental market.
One of the publishers of the report, Opportunity Green Ireland, told the Oireachtas Transport Committee recently that Europe cannot continue pursuing unlimited growth in air traffic while ignoring its social, economic and environmental consequences.
It predicts a 10.2 per cent increase in aviation traffic in Ireland between now and 2031, which it says will, of itself, result in a house price increase of €5,500 and an annual rent increase of €250 – the largest absolute rent rise of any country studied for the report.
Government will soon need to start offering grants for batteries to help households store electrical power generated from the wave of solar panels currently being installed. That’s according to Paddy Hagan, CEO of Blackwell Energy, which has installed solar panels at several addresses in the Ballyhaunis area.
Recent sunny weather has led to a surge in power being exported to the grid from homes with rooftop panels but the grid has struggled to keep pace with the increase in solar installations. There’s been a 300 percent increase in Ireland’s solar power capacity installations in the past three years, with nearly three gigawatts of capacity now installed nationwide.
“With the pressure on the national grid and the demand for increased electrification of all residential and commercial buildings, I really believe Ireland should incentivise battery storage and provide some grant supports for both residential and business,” said Hagan.
The latest energy crisis prompted by the American-Israeli attack on Iran has “reinforced the need for solar and wind to play a bigger part in the supply of power to the national grid,” said Hagan.
The potential of solar energy to cut energy bills and carbon emissions for Ballyhaunis residents was highlighted in a recent report titled ‘Energy Master Plan for Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) of Ballyhaunis,’ funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
Disruptions to global shipping caused by the war has meant “some supply chain issues” this year with shipments of solar panels and batteries, said Hagan. But, he added, mega “factory production capacity and quality control” in China, the leading maker of solar panels and batteries, is keeping costs stable.
Hagan says residential solar is “consistently achieving” a five-year payback on investment (through savings in electricity bills and earnings from power sold to the grid) while businesses and industrial facilities installing panels on their roofs are managing to pay off their investment within three years in some cases.
“This is a payback that is not available as a standalone investment, never mind its wider benefits to the planet or ability to tame the inflationary impact of soaring oil and gas prices,” said Hagan.
