Local notes: Country music royalty on her way to Mayo
Ballyhaunis Abbey Pattern took place on September 27 in the Friary grounds organised by Tracy Cunnane of Ballyhaunis Sports Hub.
Country music fans will be happy to hear that Ashley Campbell is bringing her The Goodbye Nashville Tour to Ballyhaunis on October 24.
The daughter of the country music star Glen Campbell, Ashley performed on the Late Late show recently with her band.
The singer began her career playing banjo and keyboard in her father’s band on several world tours and has found success as a solo artist in the country and Americana music scenes. Ashley wrote her debut single ‘Remembering' for her father and the song is featured on the Grammy Award winning and Oscar-nominated album for the documentary ‘Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me’.
Her third album 'Goodnight Nashville' was released in 2025 and she has toured the UK and Europe extensively with her band. Tickets for the Ballyhaunis show, priced €25, are on sale in McHugh’s Café and the Gem Costcutter and are also available online via www.eventbrite.ie Ashley Campbell @ The Friary. All proceeds towards The Friary Preservation Fund.
The AGM of Ballyhaunis Community Council is set for Wednesday, October 7 at the Community Hall. Getting under way at 8pm, the meeting will hear from officers of the Community Council on activities, finances and governance of the organisation during the past year. There will also be reports from members of the Abbey Trust appointed by the Community Council and a report from Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns.
Ballyhaunis Community Council runs the Community Hall, a popular venue for various events and serves as the community pillar for the Abbey Trust which holds St Mary’s Abbey (the Friary) in trust for the community.
Ballyhaunis Language Café said farewell to one of its most reliable members last week when Anatoly Nymchuk returned to Ukraine, travelling to Kiev with his mother Olena.
Both talented violinists, the two had become a popular presence at local events during four years in Ballyhaunis. Anatoly spoke with great appreciation for the shelter provided to his mother and him since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The weekly Thursday night English language café had provided a community which allowed him to improve his English while also making friends and participating in local society, he said.
The Language Café meets every Thursday evening at 8pm at the Community Hall for an hour of chat, tea and coffee to allow learners to practice their English while also giving locals a chance to meet and chat in an informal atmosphere.
The sharp increase in rents in the Ballyhaunis area is putting severe pressure on workers staffing the local meat processing sector. One local worker who has worked at a local meat plant for several years explained he had to send his wife home because he can no longer afford to rent a home in Ballyhaunis.
“I earn around €550 net per week, I was paying €1,200 euros a month to rent a house, now the landlord wants €1,500 a month. I had no option but to leave the house and rent a small room in a shared house with younger people working in the factory. My wife returned home to Slovakia.”
Rental rates for semi-detached homes in Ballyhaunis have increased dramatically in recent years. Rents in the Maples estate went from €600 in 2012 to €800 in 2019 to €1,200 in 2024, data from Internet accommodation searches shows. Rents in Ballyhaunis now appear to be surging further yet wage growth has not kept pace.
Local estate agent Kevin Kirrane explained that the government’s rent pressure zone, which covers most of the country and limits rent increases, should not let a landlord put the rent from €1200 to €1500, “if everybody is following the rules”.
“The landlord may say the tenant left voluntarily, but he didn’t. He left because he was told the rent was going up. It needs looking into.
“If a tenant leaves voluntarily then the landlord can reset the rent to market rent,” explained Kirrane. Good quality three-bed houses are currently able to fetch €1,500 in rent, he said, but only if in good condition.
“I was asked to do one lately at €1,500 but it was not that well presented. There were no takers. It needs painting and a really good cleaning.”
Nonetheless, demand for housing is high, said Kirrane. “I believe landlords are getting properties vacant on the pretense it’s going to the open market then suddenly it’s rented again. The landlord can’t register the new rent as the RTB (Rental Tenancies Board) will pick up on the fact termination was based on the property going for sale and it should be rented at the old rent not market rent, so again the RTB should pick up on this.”
Some landlords, said Kirrane, are operating in the black market, “to get market rents.”
A chain of beauty parlours with an outlet in Ballyhaunis won the ‘Beauticians of the Year’ award at the Irish Hair & Beauty Awards in Galway recently. Sunbar, which is run by Klaudia Teter and her mother Beata, opened its outlet in Ballyhaunis this summer to add to stores in Claremorris and Tuam.
Ballyhaunis is a “town with great potential,” Klaudia told this page, adding that she made the decision to invest after visiting her sister Roksanna’s Tribe Coffee business, also on Main Street, early this year. “We were looking to open a third store for the past year or two, we see Ballyhaunis as a town on the up, a town that’s growing and we want to be part of that.” Klaudia’s sister Roksana in 2025 opened an outlet of her Tribe Coffee chain in Ballyhaunis, having opened the Galway outlet in 2023 before setting up in Claremorris the following year.
The maker of a film about Ballyhaunis-based musician Paddy Joe Tighe is bringing the film on tour after a successful screening in Ballyhaunis in August.
The film will be screened at Claremorris Town Hall Theatre on Friday, October 16 (6pm) and in Tooreen Hall the following evening before going to Aghamore on October 24.
“We’re planning screenings in Aghamore, Castlerea, Kilkelly and Kilmovee, with a few more possibly to come,” explained Adam Kaczmarek of AK Media who made the film.
The 90-minute documentary features extensive interviews with Paddy Joe in his native Aghamore and Kilkelly. One of the interviews was filmed outside Falleighter schoolhouse in Kilkelly where Paddy Joe went to school.
The accordion player’s friends and fellow musicians Alan Morrisroe and Connie Gildea were interviewed for the film along with others who know him well, including Fr Stephen Farragher and younger local musicians Liam Foody and Brian Flanagan. Traditional musicians Joe Byrne and Emer Maycock also feature.
In the film Paddy Joe recalls his youth, the influence of his mother, also a musician, on his playing style and also discusses collaborations with other noted musicians. He also revisits memories of playing at wedding parties in local pubs, including Griffin’s bar and restaurant which was located where Colleran’s pharmacy now operates in Ballyhaunis.
The sun shone on the latest edition of the Abbey Pattern, a day of sports and fun held in the grounds of St Mary’s Abbey.
Director of Ballyhaunis Sports Hub, Tracy Cunnane, the main organiser of this year’s event said, “the weather was perfect for the day, thanks to all the volunteers and local businesses who helped with keeping this annual event going, there were many fun events, bouncy castles, face painters, bubbles, penalty shoot-out, races galore and a dog show.” Ms Cunnane also thanked the Rural Social Scheme workers attached to the Friary for have the grounds well organised for the event. Anyone wanting to join in the organising for next year can text Tracy at 086-0618126.
The Ballyhaunis Abbey Pattern historically took place on the last day of August to mark the feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo, founder of the Order of Saint Augustine, also known as the Augustinians, who had a presence in Ballyhaunis for nearly 600 years, up to 2002.
The term Pattern, which comes from the Irish pátrún, traditionally refers to the devotions or celebrations which take place within a parish on the feast day of the patron saint of the parish, or on the nearest Sunday. In more recent times the event has become a family and community day with a harvest mass celebrated separately at the Friary.
The deadline for submissions to the 2026 edition of the popular Annagh magazine is Friday, October 16.
Articles, club reports and photographs are being accepted for inclusion in Annagh 2026, the 49th issue of the annual Ballyhaunis parish magazine, and can be emailed to info@annaghmag.ie, or given to any committee member. The publishers of the magazine issue a “gentle reminder to secretaries and PROs of local organisations yet to send in reports.”
