Local Notes: Ballyhaunis Senior Citizens party was a great success
The ladies who organised the meal at the annual Senior Citizens Christmas Party at the Communal Centre on Sunday, December 7th, from left: Maggie Finnegan, Aisling Caulfield, Elma McBride, Emily Murphy and Tina McGoldrick. Picture: Fr Stephen Farragher
The volunteer team behind a medical evacuation facility near Ballyhaunis hope to have the first stage of the project built in early 2026.
Project organiser Gerry O’Boyle explained that a helicopter landing pad will be built at a cost of approximately €180,000 with an emergency room to be built later, at a cost of approximately €1.5 million.
Located in Carrowreagh, near Ballyhaunis, the air ambulance base will be built in memory of Billy Kedian, a Ballyhaunis native who died on United Nations service in Lebanon.
“We are waiting for corporate funding and we’ll be applying to Mayo County Council’s CLÁR funding scheme,” said Mr O’Boyle. “We aim to start work in January or February.”
The new helicopter pad will come with LED lighting, he added. Planning permission is not an issue in building the helipad, explained Mr O'Boyle.
“You don’t need planning to land a helicopter,” he noted.
The building of a fully-equipped emergency room at the site will happen later.
“It will be fully equipped to treat someone on site," he said.
The Billy Kedian Heli Hero Trust, under which the helipad is being built, is meanwhile helping to bring children to hospital.
“We recently flew a little girl from hospital in London home to Waterford,” said Mr O’Boyle.
The Trust’s website explains that helicopter mercy missions for children will keep alive the memory of Private Kedian, who died after a rocket attack on the army base in which he was serving. Medical evacuation by helicopter from the site was not possible at the time of the attack.
The Billy Kedian Heli Hero Trust website explains: “Our mission is simple: no child in Ireland should ever be left without access to urgent medical care, no matter where they live. Every second counts, and distance must never be a barrier when a child’s life is in danger.
“Through rapid helicopter transport, we bridge the gap between families in crisis and the specialised care their children need. Our vision is of an Ireland where compassion takes flight, where every community is within reach of help, and where every mission carried out keeps Billy Kedian’s memory alive.”
Speaking in September 2024 at the launch of a fundraising campaign in Ballyhaunis for the helipad project, Minister of State Alan Dillon called for an audit of the emergency service needs of the western region to identify the needs for air ambulance support services.
A formal assessment of the region would identify the specific needs for air ambulance services across the region with regard to distances to local hospitals and other factors, said Minister Dillon, who also said that any eventual project in Ballyhaunis would be a “partnership” with a contracted provider supplying the aircraft and pilots and the health service supplying medical staff.
Minister Dillon envisages the proposed Ballyhaunis service operating as a helipad allowing a helicopter with medical staff on board to land and provide emergency care, as well as hospital transfer. During the launch event, both Minister Dillon and his government colleague Dara Calleary referenced the work of Castlebar-based medic Dr Lisa Cunningham who has pointed out that air-based emergency services across the country are inadequate to the size of the population.
New volunteers are welcome to the annual general meeting of local soccer club Ballyhaunis Town, which is scheduled for Monday, January 5th, at 7.30pm at the Friary House.
Householders on the Lavallyroe Johnstown Group Water Scheme will be asked for a €50 contribution towards the purchase of two generators for the organisation to be used in the case of a power outage. The proposal for the levy was passed at the scheme’s recent annual general meeting.
Also passed was a motion to increase the charge per farm on the scheme from €150 to €200. The decision was being made with a view to prepare the scheme for charges expected from Uisce Éireann. The state-owned utilities company typically charges rural water schemes for water supplied, though it remains unclear how the charging system will work, explained Gerry Coffey, secretary of the Lavallyroe Johnstown Group Water Scheme.
Mr Coffey paid tribute to the work done by the scheme chairperson Adrian Lilly, treasurer PJ Fleming and maintenance operative Michael Walsh.
Chairperson Adrian Lilly told the meeting that the scheme will eventually dissolve and be absorbed entirely by Uisce Éireann. In the meantime, pipework will be maintained by the scheme.
Nationally, Uisce Éireann charges commercial premises and farms for water but no water charges apply to private residences.
Electricity was the top expenditure item of the Lavallyroe Johnstown Group Water Scheme in 2024, followed by leak detection and repair and then motor and travel, in that order. The scheme spent €42,647 on electricity to run its pumps in 2023, a figure which fell to €22,292 in 2024 in line with a reduction in electricity prices in general after a large 2022-2023 spike prompted by the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
An annual grant from Mayo County Council worth €45,968 made up the bulk of the scheme’s income in 2024, ahead of member contributions which totalled €13,575.
A shortage of cattle may mean a shift to a four-day week for most workers at the Dawn Meats plant in Ballyhaunis. Several workers at the plant told this column that they have been told that the beef slaughtering operations will shift to a four-day week in 2026. A shortage of beef cattle has pushed up prices paid for cattle over the past year at meat factories across the country.
One of the workers who spoke to this column said he was told he could access social welfare to compensate for the loss of the fifth working day and that guidance would be provided on this.
Meat industry analyst Rupert Claxton told this column recently that smaller meat plants face consolidation or amalgamation due to a contraction of the national herd, which Claxton sees persisting.
Waterford-headquartered Dawn Meats earlier this year moved part of the lamb processing line in Ballyhaunis to its plant in Kildare.
The company was contacted but declined to comment.
A sum of €47,500 has been allocated under the Government’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme towards the redevelopment of the derelict former Scouts Den near the train station in Ballyhaunis. The fund is operated by the Department of Rural and Community Development led by Minister Dara Calleary.
A press release from local TD Alan Dillon said the funds “will support the detailed design, planning preparation, procurement steps, and necessary assessments to advance a strategic mediumâscale redevelopment of the derelict Scouts Den site". The property is located on the grounds of St Mary’s Abbey, known as the Friary, but also abuts onto grounds owned by Irish Rail.
Carols and curries brought Christmas cheer at the festive gathering of the local Indian community on December 27th at the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis.
"An Indian Christmas is quite similar to the Irish Christmas, we have church and we have Santa, but one of the big traditions back home is carol singing... groups of carol singers go from house to house and are welcomed by locals with food and drink,” explained Jenish John, president of Knock Indian Malayalee Association (KIMA), a community from the largely Christian Kerala region of India.
Aside from singing carols, the Ballyhaunis party-goers also created and displayed stars, the key symbol of Christmas for Christians in India, a majority Hindu nation.
Over 100 attendees of the Ballyhaunis party - many of them medical staff working in care homes and at Castlebar hospital - also enjoyed traditional cuisine from home including bee curries and fish cakes.
