Local Notes: All the latest news from Ballyhaunis
Participants at the weaving workshop with Laura Dinraths at Ballyhaunis Community Hall supported by Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board.
Ballyhaunis has improved its score in the national Tidy Towns awards in large part due to the street cleaning and biodiversity efforts of the local Tidy Towns group, which was also commended for the Citizen Science group it runs to monitor the quality of the River Dalgan.
A report written by Tidy Towns judges on their visit to Ballyhaunis also credited businesses in the town for their shop fronts and local circular economy initiatives in awarding Ballyhaunis 362 points (out of a potential total of 600) compared to 350 in 2025. The judges also suggested more needs to be done to control and collect litter around the town.
“Ballyhaunis, like many small Irish towns, is suffering from a degree of dereliction, especially along Knox Street,” noted the judges, who however added that they “admired” renovated properties, including the Old Butcher, J. Lyons and the former Bank of Ireland building.
“These all looked great and reflect investment confidence in your core area,” noted the judges who added: "There were also a number of very nice shopfronts to mention a few, Finn Footwear, Dillon Leetch Solicitors, Paddy Philips and Eddie Murphy's to mention a few.
“St Patrick's Church contributes well to the streetscape as does the community centre and the nearly completed good contemporary primary care centre. It is sad to see the courthouse declining into a derelict state but hopefully it will lend itself to a new use soon. In the interim, if the railings were cleaned and repainted and some floral enhancement installed it would improve its address to the street.”
The Aldi development “has included for very high quality hard and soft landscaping and nice resting spot too".
"In contrast the SuperValu supports quite a barren landscape that would lend itself to island trees and raised bed planting, perhaps with less formal planting along boundaries.
“The Community School is well designed especially with a layout that brings the building tight onto the path. The Mosque complex at Sherwood Avenue reflects your diverse community and adds interest to the general streetscape. The library area represents a nice hub of community activity with your discreet outdoor swimming pool to the rear.”
The judges admired the “traditional fine attractive design in stone structures” at the train station but suggested: “Perhaps you could persuade the stationmaster to install some planters or baskets here to celebrate arrival in Ballyhaunis.”
The town’s main street “had a great array of floral planters and baskets which add great colour and vibrancy to the town,” the judges noted of their visit.
The Tidy Towns judges were full of praise for the Friary grounds as a public amenity allowing exercise and recreation. However, they noted, smaller public spaces could do with improvement such as the 1916 commemoration parklet which “needs some surface attention and more mixed planting on adjacent bed".
"Tthe grounds of St Patrick's Church are well maintained and offer a nice amenity short cut route within the town. The old market square area looked well with your generously tiered planters and sculpture. The trees in the boxes give verticality to the planting too and will be more appreciated when the building works are complete.”
Despite the “selfless work” of Tidy Towns volunteers there remains “a need for more regular picks and an address of weeds,” noted the judges.
The town’s recycling area was “particularly poor with a lot of discarded clothes, cardboard, bottles and cans". Similarly, “the route to the church from SuperValu site had pockets of litter lodged in a number of places".
“There was some although not substantial litter on the main streets also. The sundial area had sweet wrappings at the plaque, the grassed area at Aldi had a lot of litter…The town appeared generally tidy apart from where there are derelict buildings – simple painting elevations could transform some of these if you initiated an enhancement scheme or requested Mayo County Council to take the initiative. It would be beneficial also to tidy and paint the vehicular entrance to the park; it would give a welcome to what is a fantastic community space.”
There was some political noise recently when it was pointed out by the state’s Climate Change Advisory Council that Ireland imports 83% of its fruit and vegetables, making the country vulnerable to hunger if increasingly common climate shocks like extreme heat stunts crops in countries like Spain where Ireland increasingly buys vegetables.
Even though Irish horticultural farms have been struggling to enter the vast supply chains of international supermarket chains, growing vegetables locally is possible, according to local market gardener Sebastian Dmilanowski whose Mannin Farm in Larganboy has been able to secure a market for its vegetable production.
“When we moved to Ireland a few years back with an intention to start a vegetable farm, we were aware of the high proportion of vegetables imported here and considered it an opportunity for us,” Sebastian said.
“We've started five years ago from scratch. It takes a considerable amount of effort, time and money. We are still investing all our profits back into the farm so it's a long term commitment. The farm supports our family, but we wouldn't be able to employ anyone without large-scale expansion both in land and infrastructure.
“We grow more than twenty different crops every season, as diversification is key to success. It is possible to grow a variety of crops here, from Irish classics like root crops to more challenging crops like sweetcorn.”
Mannin Farm produces a range of green leaf vegetables like cabbage as well as brassicas, tomatoes and courgettes and peppers with the produce sold from the farm and at local supermarkets.
“Growing all of these is possible on a small scale, where we tend all crops by hand,” said Sebastian. “Vegetables are fresh and with exceptional flavours. This is much harder to achieve on a large-scale farm.”
The announcement of a new 7% tax on derelict properties has raised the prospect that more unused properties will soon be brought back into use.
However, it’s not clear what constitutes a derelict property or how the tax will be applied given a derelict sites register for the county seems to be outdated with several refurbished Ballyhaunis properties listed as derelict.
The latest update of the derelict sites register, which is published on mayo.ie every three months, lists the ‘Dillon’s’ property in the centre of Ballyhaunis as one of 11 derelict properties in the town, despite the building’s extensive refurbishment. The ‘Dillon’s’ building is set to be leased by Mayo County Council for social housing.
A statement from Mayo County Council to this page noted: “While we cannot comment on any individual case, any property on the derelict sites register has been inspected and deemed derelict by an authorised officer. Properties are only removed from the register once all required remedial works are complete and a reinspection has taken place.
“The onus is on the property owner to notify the Derelict Sites Team at Mayo County Council if they have completed the remedial works on their property. The team then arrange a reinspection of the property. If deemed non derelict by the inspecting officer, the property is removed from the register.”
Another property on the list, Larganboy School, is the subject of a planning application to convert the building to a home.
“Submission of a planning application does not remove a site from the derelict sites register, which can only happen if the building has been demolished and removed, or the requisite works are completed to the building to take it out of dereliction,” noted the Mayo County Council statement.
The Government’s new Derelict Property Tax is an important step towards bringing neglected buildings back into use and revitalising communities across Mayo, Minister of State Alan Dillon TD said, welcoming a tax of 7% of a derelict property’s market value (as declared by the owner) announced in the recent Budget.
The new tax will complement existing supports, including the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, which provides up to €70,000 to refurbish eligible derelict properties, and its expansion to support vacant accommodation above shops which provides a grant of up to €140,000.
“People who work hard to maintain their homes and businesses deserve to see the same care taken with neighbouring properties,” said Minister Dillon. “Dereliction affects the appearance of a street, local confidence and the willingness of others to invest.”
The tax will be introduced on a phased basis. In its first year of operation, it will apply to towns and cities with populations of at least 4,000 in Census 2022, extending to towns with populations of at least 2,000 in its second year.
A weekly Irish class for beginners and improvers has proven a big hit since starting this month at the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis.
Meeting at 7pm on Thursdays, the classes are aimed at beginners and improvers who want to reengage with or explore the national language in a friendly, fun atmosphere. The classes are run by Ballyhaunis Langauge Café in conjunction with Ballyhaunis Community Council.
