Local Notes: Ballyhaunis native's delight at US honour for friend
Streamers are released at the end of the christening ceremony in Maine, USA, for the USS Patrick Gallagher, a naval ship named after a Ballyhaunis man who was killed in the Vietnam War.
Martin Durkan, a US-based Ballyhaunis native who lobbied for the naming of a US Navy missile destroyer vessel in memory of a Ballyhaunis native killed in the Vietnam War, described the formal christening of the vessel last week in Maine as “an incredible success".
“It was 28 degrees, with clear blue skies,” he recalled to this column. “The USS Patrick Gallagher sat proudly in the floating barge used to slowly submerge it into the river. The ship is longer than a standard GAA pitch and will have a crew of 350. The launch will occur in the near future months but will not have a separate ceremony.
“The ceremony attended by 2,600 guests including many shipyard workers, sailors and marines and many members of the Gallagher family both from the US and Ireland.
Sean Coffey represented the US Secretary of the Navy and spoke fondly of the seven summers he spent as a teenager on the family farm in Cork. Numerous high-ranking admirals and US Marine Corps generals spoke as did Patrick Gallagher’s sisters Teresa and Pauline Gallagher.
“General Walter Boomer -Captain Boomer in 1967- was present," explained Martin. "General Boomer was Patrick’s commanding officer in 1967 and remembers him clearly. Gen Boomer has established close ties with Patrick’s family. Minister Fleming from Ireland was present and spoke to the assembled crowd. The ceremony was viewed both in Ballyhaunis and Granlahan.”
As part of the works to install a pedestrian bridge over the Dalgan River on Bridge Street, the traditional slipway down to the river may be filled in and the area risen to the height of the road.
That’s according to provisional plans offered by Transport Infrastructure Ireland to Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns, which installed a commemorative garden and seating area in 2016 to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising.
Benches and flower beds installed by the group would be reinstated under the plan proposed by the TII as part of its overall scheme of works designed to widen Bridge Street, which also serves as a primary national road. Preparatory works for the installation of the steel structured path, attached to the interior of the bridge, were completed recently by a Louth-based construction company hired by TII. In times past the river slip-way was an important location for play and for access to river water.
While the deposit return scheme for beverage bottles and cans has proven very popular locally not all bottles are eligible for the scheme. A disappointed reader of this column was in touch to say that she’s been unable to return bottles from protein and dairy drinks.
A spokesperson from Aurivo, the makers of popular energy and health drinks, explained that “all dairy products are not included in the deposit return scheme. The consumer is not charged the deposit on these products.”
More details are available at the re-turn.ie website.
With tensions in the Middle East running particularly high these days, someone with particular insights into the power workings in Tehran is retired local politician Jim Higgins who has become a central figure in the movement for a change of regime in Iran.
Since retirement, the former MEP has been assisting Maryam Rajavi, the French-based president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of groups seeking to replace the clerical regime that has run Iran since 1979.
Jim Higgins’ endorsement of Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for a new Iran was used extensively on social media in the run-up to a march in Berlin in June. The Ten-Point Plan calls for a secular, democratic Iranian republic with gender equality.
Last September, Jim addressed a Paris conference marking the anniversary of widespread protests against the Iranian regime. In 2022, both Jim Higgins and Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon were present when Maryam Rajavi addressed a group of Oireachtas members in Leinster House.
As an MEP, Higgins chaired a European-American Conference convened in 2012 by the Friends of Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament, also addressed by Ms Rajavi.
Ms Rajavi and her husband have been key figures in the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, or Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the largest constituent group in the NCRI coalition. The MEK was a leftist group established in the 1960s to oppose the Pahlavi dynasty, before falling foul of the mullahs after the clerics took power in 1979.
Members of Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns have expressed worry that a mechanical digger cleaning the River Dalgan running through Ballyhaunis may be doing harm to the long-term health of the river. Removal of plant life that sustains local wildlife has been a major concern of ecologists monitoring Irish rivers.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) meanwhile has a statutory duty under the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, and the Amendment of the Act, 1995, to maintain arterial drainage and flood relief schemes across the country.
In a statement to this column, the OPW said: “The Dalgan River forms part of the upper Clare River, which is an OPW maintained channel (C3) and forms part of the Corrib Arterial Catchment Drainage Scheme, where the C3 drainage channel extends over a distance of 92,850m approximately.
“The Office of Public Works Corrib Drainage Section, as part of its annual maintenance programme for 2024, has scheduled to carry out Arterial Drainage works along a section of this channel which have been identified as requiring scheduled maintenance. The works were carried out under the 1945 Arterial Drainage Act, in line with the OPW’s statutory function to provide a drainage outfall to agricultural lands and manage river conveyance and flooding along the Corrib catchment.
“Arterial Drainage Maintenance works are carried out with consideration given to many aspects such as environmental and local requirements and we regularly engage with various stakeholders throughout the catchment, and endeavour to facilitate their specific needs and requirements where possible.
"In light of your query, we will seek to make contact with the Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns and address their concerns in relation to recent works where possible.”
A report on local biodiversity compiled for Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns by ecologist Dr Mary Tubridy and published earlier this year pointed to actions needed to protect wildlife and habitats as well as freshwater sources in Ballyhaunis. The most recent annual report by Irish Water into water quality described water in the Dalgan as “poor” and unfit for human consumption.
A 51-acre site on the outskirts of Ballyhaunis is being offered for €1.5 million by Tuam-based Property Partners Long, making it one of the highest-priced properties to come to the market locally.
Stretching from Cherryfield near the train station to the R293 Ballyhaunis to Ballaghadereen main road, the land is a mix of farmland and scrubland with sand deposits.
“Given close proximity to the town centre and railway station, a significant portion of the land is within the Town Plan and will surely be considered for rezoning at the next draft Plan stage,” noted Property Partners Long in the advert for the land placed on property websites.
“The shortage of suitable land for residential and alternative development close to town centre should attract a variety of expressions of interest.”
In the Mayo County Development Plan 2022-2028, the land is zoned for “recreation and amenities”.
The Ballyhaunis playground on the grounds of the Friary is open to the public again after extensive works carried out with €75,000 from the Community Recognition Fund administered by the Department of Rural and Community Development. The Fund acknowledges local communities that have received large numbers of Ukrainian refugees as well as asylum seekers.
“This is the first opportunity the Council has had to carry out major works at the Friary Grounds playground since it was opened in 2006,” explained Padraic Flanagan, chief executive of the Claremorris Municipal District at Mayo County Council.
“The works were supervised by the Council’s Executive Parks Superintendent Peter Gill with the co-operation of the Abbey Partnership and Trust and Claremorris municipal district staff,” explained Mr Flanagan.
Congratulations to Ann O'Brien, Knock, winner of €500 on an envelope sold in Phillips Butcher's in the recent Ballyhaunis GAA 50/50 draw.
