Local Notes: All the latest news from Ballyhaunis
Volunteers busy at work at the bicycle repair clinic, a monthly initiative run by Ballyhaunis Community Council at the Community Hall.
Work is progressing well on the social housing development in Abbeyquarter, according to the construction company building the 25 new homes.
Works are “advancing steadily across the site”, according to C&N Higgins Construction Ltd, which was hired by Mayo County Council to complete the project. The Galway-based firm expects the development to be completed in the second half of 2027.
“Significant progress has been made across the development,” since work on the project commenced in 2025, the company told this page. “A number of homes have now reached the internal and external finishing stages, with plastering, painting and other works progressing well. Elsewhere on site, additional homes have reached roof level, while blockwork, groundworks and infrastructure works continue across the remaining areas of the development.”
The development will deliver 25 much-needed social homes on behalf of Mayo County Council, including a mix of two, three and four-bedroom houses, two fully accessible four-bedroom homes designed for special-needs use, and a community dwelling.
Colin Higgins, Director of C&N Higgins Construction Ltd, said: "It is great to see the continued progress at Abbeyquarter and the development taking shape. Our team, together with our subcontractors and supply chain partners, has maintained strong momentum on site, and we look forward to continuing to work with Mayo County Council to deliver these much-needed homes for the Ballyhaunis community."
The absence of any political representatives was criticised at a screening of a film on the climate crisis in Ballyhaunis last week.
Hosted by the Climate Café Connacht, the film, , is a 50-minute documentary featuring various scientific experts who outline the extent and likely impact of climate change on people’s health, the economy, nature, food production and other aspects of society.
“We invited every political representative in Mayo and in the neighbouring counties,” explained Steve Ridd, one of the organisers of the screening at the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis.
A large attendance travelled from as far away as Louisburgh and Clonbur to watch the film and join a discussion afterwards.
The impact of severe weather on the planet’s ability to feed itself was one of the issues discussed during the debate, with falling crop yields due to droughts a major worry in Europe this summer. The impact of extreme heat on people with existing heath conditions, highlighted by the film, was also discussed by the audience after the screening.
Several of those present at the Ballyhaunis screening suggested that in the absence of urgency at the political level, community groups need to organise themselves to demand action while also undertaking projects together that raise awareness of climate change.
Several of those present suggested organising screenings at local schools of the film, which features a range of preeminent scientific experts discussing the current and likely future impact of climate change.
Several roads in the Ballyhaunis area in the past week were resurfaced by a Longford-based civil engineering and plant hire company.
Granard-based Brandrake Plant Hire Limited was hired by Mayo County Council to resurface parts of several rural roads. A second company, FohnTech, worked alongside Branddrake providing traffic management.
Brandrake has invested heavily in highly efficient German-built machines like a Schäfer Technic OB-Vario, a lorry described as a “self-loading combined surface dressing machine” dispensing both asphalt and stone chips simultaneously with a Vögele roller machine following up. In earlier years, council staff dispensed the chips and tar separately.
The impressive outfit was in action on roads in Ballykilleen, Gurraune and Bunduff in the past week.
Kerry-based FohnTech advertises itself as a recruitment company providing general operatives and skilled labour to the civil engineering and construction sector. It also provides traffic management on roadworks.
The sending of a regiment of British soldiers to Ballyhaunis in 1848 to assist in the collection of the poor rates was one of the items which came up at the latest meeting of the heritage and genealogy group run by Ballyhaunis Community Council.
A trawl of newspapers from the 1840s revealed that after the Famine the authorities struggled to collect poor rates, a tax levied on locals to pay for workhouses and relief for the poor. Such was the level of poverty after the Famine that many were unable to pay the rates.
Ballyhaunis in the 1840s was part of the Castlerea Union, unions being administrative bodies tasked with overseeing workhouses and relief schemes.
The heritage group will meet fortnightly during the autumn and winter months to search the archives, watch films and listen to guest speakers. Enquiries to 087-9777899.
The primary care centre in Ballyhaunis is set to be completed in October but delays in electrical connections, kit-out and staffing mean that the facility is unlikely to welcome its first patients till January, according to workers at the site. That will be six years after the original completion date for the project.
The primary care centre was originally to be completed in the Autumn of 2021 and is part of a national network of such primary care centres designed to carry out more medical procedures locally rather than in regional hospitals. The clinic was built by a private Roscommon-based developer who will rent the building to the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Local TD Alan Dillon, in a press statement last week, said the centre is expected to accommodate approximately 14 HSE staff, with services including GP care, public health nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dental services and community medicine.
“Other services, including immunisation, child and family psychology, dietetics, podiatry and integrated care, will be provided on a visiting basis. Social work provision is planned for two days per week through a county-wide post,” said the statement from Dillon, the junior minister at the Department of Enterprise.
“Bringing nursing, therapies and other community services together in Ballyhaunis will be an important improvement in local healthcare,” said Minister of State Dillon. “For parents bringing a child to a therapy appointment, or older people attending community services, having care available locally can make a real difference.”
Acknowledging local councillor Alma Gallagher for her continued work and support on this project, Minister of State Dillon said he will keep pressing the HSE for “a clear timetable for the phased opening and confirmation that the staffing and equipment are in place to support it".
Food vendors in Ballyhaunis are bracing themselves for higher costs of potatoes this winter due to a much-reduced European harvest of tubers this year.
A series of severe heatwaves reduced the crop by over three million tonnes as potatoes struggled to grow in key producing countries like Belgium, France, Germany and Holland.
High temperatures and lack of rainfall in the summer of 2026 has resulted in stunted or lower than average sized potatoes. Surplus from a large crop in 2025 is expected to cover some of the shortfall up to Christmas of this year but prices are expected to rise sharply after the excess stock is exhausted.
Drought has also impacted Europe’s grain crop. Farms in Ireland’s eastern and southern counties also suffered from drought this summer, leading to lower grass growth and lower milk yields.
Millions of euros are being invested by Uisce Éireann in significant new piping which will relieve problems with “intermittency” on the Johnstown Lavallyroe Water Scheme.
Gerry Coffey, secretary of the water scheme, said the extensive new pipe work on the Cloonfad-Williamstown road will ensure a stable supply to the scheme which was added to the Uisce Éireann main supply in 2025.
New piping was installed by Uisce Éireann in 2023 and 2024, but technical issues delayed the switch-over until 2025. Prior to the switch-over to the Uisce Éireann supply, users of the Johnstown Lavallyroe scheme had been frequently subject to boil-water notices.
Users of the scheme are now, like other householders in the Ballyhaunis area, supplied with water pumped from the Lough Mask water reservoir by a network of pumps.
