New Director urged to back efforts to secure major 'legacy project' for Ballina
Scenes from this year's Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Wexford featuring musicians from local Comhaltas groups, Ciara Banville, Eve Maloney, Catherine Roache and Aoife Banville.
The new Director of Services for the Ballina Municipal District has been urged to support the town’s bid to host the 2028 All-Ireland Fleadh.
Catherine McConnell attended her first meeting as Director for the MD after moving from the Westport-Belmullet MD as part of a summer reshuffle of Directors.
Cllr Mark Duffy was among the elected representatives to welcome Ms McConnell to her new role and to wish her predecessor Tom Gilligan well in his new role as Director for the Claremorris-Swinford MD.
He urged the new Director to put some effort into Ballina’s potential bid for the All-Ireland Fleadh.
“I hope you can continue the good work on trying to bring the Fleadh to Ballina. That would be a really good legacy project for all of us to have achieved within this five-year term,” he said.
Cllr Annie-May Reape also urged Ms McConnell to pursue a bid to host the Fleadh, which was last hosted by Ballina in 1997 and 1998. There are efforts being made locally to push for a bid for the 2028 Fleadh.
“We really want to push for that for the town after seeing how well it went for Wexford this year,” she said.
Ms McConnell said she was excited to be in the role and to further the development of Ballina and to build upon the work done by her predecessor Mr Gilligan.
She said she wants to focus on supporting the elected members in various projects and to ensure that “no euro leaves this MD.”
