Local Notes: Ballyhaunis to launch energy master plan
Ballyhaunis area under-13 chess team who won Mayo Cairn Community Games Final in Kilmaine recently and were runners-up in the Connacht Final in Sligo on May 2nd. The team is photographed with Tracy Cunnane, Ballyhaunis Area Community Games Secretary and coach Michael Macken as well as Anthony Leonard, chairperson for the Connacht region at Cairn Community Games.
The Ballyhaunis Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) will officially launch its Energy Master Plan for Ballyhaunis on Tuesday, May 19th, from 6 to 8pm at Ballyhaunis Community Hall. Funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the plan “marks a major step forward in the town’s transition to a more sustainable and energy-efficient future,” according to the SEC.
“The event will bring together local residents, energy experts, and community leaders to outline a roadmap for reducing energy use, cutting carbon emissions, and supporting homeowners in improving energy efficiency,” the SEC explained.
The Ballyhaunis Energy Master Plan will be launched by local councillor Alma Gallagher while there will also be an overview of the plan by Marcus MacDonnacha of Celtic Dynamics, a consultancy which conducted the audits of energy use in local buildings which form a key part of the plan. Information on home energy retrofit grants available through the SEAI will be presented by Dr Orla Nic Suibhne, an SEC mentor engaged by the SEAI. Guidance on solar photovoltaic (PV) options for homeowners will be provided by David Doherty, owner of Ballinlough-based firm Switch to Solar. This event is co-hosted by the Ballyhaunis Community Council, with Churchfield Home Services One Stop Shop also in attendance to provide expert advice.
Congratulations to local boxer Cathal Conlon who has been selected to represent Ireland in the Four Nations Tournament this June in Scotland.
Pollution remains an issue for the local Dalgan River judging by the results of a recent testing of the waterway by a citizen science group organised by Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns.
“We surveyed two sites: the Friary Grounds and Drimbaune, south of Ballyhaunis… Both sites showed a score of "moderately polluted", with a significant reduction in numbers of invertebrates and species in the downstream site.
“The Friary Grounds had a lot more ‘good’ as well as ‘bad’ indicators for water quality, while the river at Drimbaune was just poor in both indicators. We also encountered a crayfish and two fish, possibly brown trout.”
Using the presence or absence of key river creatures to score the quality of the river water - some creatures being more tolerant of low-oxygen, polluted waters - the citizen science group was trained by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), a service shared by county councils across Ireland to reverse the degradation of Ireland’s rivers and lakes.
The River Dalgan, which flows southwards from Ballyhaunis and on to join the Clare and Corrib rivers in Galway, has in recent years suffered from an increase in pollutants from agricultural and wastewater sources.
“One by one, the lights go out on another solitary country life.”
So go the words written by Michael Harding, narrated for a short film shot near Ballinlough which tells the story familiar to many: the closure of small farms as an ageing cohort of farmers retire or pass away.
‘One By One, the Lights Go Out’ is one of several films made by Dublin-based film-maker Kathy Raftery which will be shown at the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis on May 12th. Other films to be shown include 'A Roscommon Snapshot', which tells the story of three Roscommon men who served in the Vietnam War. The Buildings, another of Raftery’s short films, interviews Irishmen who in earlier decades worked in often perilous conditions on British building sites.
Also to be screened is ‘Stories in the Making’, Kathy’s latest short film with the Ballinlough Granlahan Active Age Group, featuring some members who live in Ballyhaunis. The screenings commence at 8pm.
With local beef farmers fretting over a drop in prices paid by factories including Dawn Meats in Ballyhaunis, it’s worth noting that while the noise over the EU’s deal with Mercosur has abated there’s similar and vocal opposition in Canada’s beef farming sector over an imminent deal being negotiated between Canberra and the South American trading bloc.
The origins of the beef farmers’ anxiety are familiar: Canada, like the EU, wants a trade deal with Mercosur to reduce its reliance on a Trump-led America and is prepared to trade zero-tariff access to its meat market in return for access to Latin American markets for its exports.
Farmers in Canada, which in 2025 imported 30 percent of its beef (the US imports 19 per cent and the EU only seven per cent of its beef needs), fear the country is going to be swamped by imports from Brazil.
Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter: it shipped 3.5 million tonnes worth $18 billion in 2025, dwarfing Irish exports which were worth $4.8 billion. Its neighbour and fellow Mercosur member Argentina is another top beef producer. Exports from Brazil have soared this year so far, though new quotas brought in by its key customer, China, has prompted Brazil's JBS, the world's largest beef processor, to seek new markets. Irish beef farmers, who protest that Brazil’s lower environmental and welfare standards make it an unfair competitor will be watching closely.
An annual Corpus Christi procession organised by the Parish Pastoral Council will take place on the evening of June 6th, commencing after 7.30pm mass in St. Patrick's Church and will arrive at the Friary at approximately 8.30pm.
The Pastoral Council is planning, as in previous years, to decorate the Friary avenue for the procession by inviting local children to chalk religious pictures on the tarmac outside the front door of the Friary. Refreshments will be served to people outside the Friary House after the service.
Proposed changes to EU rules on transport of farm animals and poultry could have significant impact on the production of poultry in Ballyhaunis, home to one of Ireland’s leading poultry processing firms, Western Brand.
An EU Commission proposal to require more headroom in crates for poultry being transported is being resisted by the industry as, in the words of Nadia Khaldoune, Senior Policy Advisor at the Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU countries (AVEC) “providing more space or extra headroom in crates has been shown to increase movement, injuries and mortality, while also multiplying trucks, costs and emissions".
Khaldoune added that “Europe’s poultry sector supports a revision of the animal-welfare rules during transport, but the rules must be practical, science-based and enforceable… We therefore call for keeping current, proven container density and height rules, excluding loading/unloading from 'journey time', and avoiding feed and water obligations during transport, which conflict with essential pre-slaughter withdrawal. Real progress will come through output-based welfare indicators, husbandry management, operators training, new technologies, digitalisation and achievable incentives.”
A volunteer-led bicycle repair clinic in Ballyhaunis has been invited to apply for a new fund launched by Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment Alan Dillon. The Mayo-based TD announced over €29 million in funding to support projects across Ireland that will help communities reduce waste, reuse more, and build a more sustainable local economy.
The funding, provided through the Circular Economy Fund, will support initiatives in every region of the country, from community repair hubs and reuse centres to innovative business projects that cut waste and make better use of materials.
Minister Dillon said: “This €29 million investment is about making the circular economy real for people in their everyday lives, whether that’s being able to repair a bike, buy a refurbished appliance, or see less waste in their community.”
Run by Ballyhaunis Community Council, the cycle repair clinic next meets on May 17th from 9.30am to 12.30pm at the Community Hall with demonstrations on repair techniques, repairs and a sale of quality second hand cycles donated to the clinic which last year won the Mayo County Council Cathaoirleach’s Award for Best Sustainable Transport Initiative.
Ballyhaunis members of Post Office Pensioners United (POPU) protested on May 8th in Ballina and Castlebar against what they describe as ongoing financial penalties imposed on retired An Post workers “many of whom are vulnerable and living on fixed incomes".
“The issue is that in 2013, An Post and its unions, led by the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU), agreed a Pension Accord to restore the company’s pension fund over 10 years," explained the group. "That goal has now been achieved - the fund is back in surplus. Yet the Accord has been extended indefinitely, continuing to cap pension increases and erode the real value of pensions."
Pension rights protected under Section 46 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 are being effectively ignored, the group claims, with retired workers “being asked to carry a burden that should no longer exist”.
POPU, as well as An Post management, will appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport this week.
