Local notes from Ballyhaunis: Film screening and memorial walk
Photographed with current and retired colleagues at An Post's district sorting centre in Ballyhaunis was postman Alan Quinn, of Moundelvin, Cloonfad, who retired on Friday, September 29, after 34 years of service. On his last day, Alan was presented with a Cu Chulainn statuette by An Post district sorting unit manager Pat Kelly while Communications Workers' Union branch representative David Madden presented Alan with his union scroll. Front row, from left: Joe Byrne, Liz Flanagan, David Madden, Alan Quinn, Pat Kelly, Geraldine Flynn and Norma Jean Follard. Back row: Liam Lyons , Tom Fitzpatrick, Liam O'Boyle, Michael Connolly,Helen Byrne, Tom Murphy, Chris Brennan, Noel Heneghan, Willie Broderick, Gerard Plunkett, Emily Murphy and David Murphy.
Community groups from across the south and east Mayo region will be congregating in Ballyhaunis for a meeting of the Community Futures Claremorris-Swinford Area Network later this month.
Organised by the Community Futures office at Mayo County Council, the meeting will be hosted by Ballyhaunis Community Council at the Community Hall on Tuesday, October 24, at 7pm.
The Community Futures programme harnesses local community groups to research and compile plans which are updated and published every five years to achieve more coordinated local development. Representatives of the communities of Ballinrobe, Carracastle, Charlestown, Kilkelly, Kiltimagh and Knock will attend the Ballyhaunis meeting which will be coordinated by Mayo County Council staff.
Cill Tulach (Kiltullagh) Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) would like to thank all who supported their coffee morning in Granlahan Community Centre on September 24. A total of €830 was raised at this event for Mayo Roscommon Hospice.
A renowned British-based singer of traditional Irish songs will appear at an evening get together at Delaney’s bar on Bridge Street on October 10.
Marianne McAleer will join local poets and musicians for an informal evening organised by Frank Greally, a Ballyhaunis native based in Dublin. He will also be joined by Galway poet Anne Irwin (nee Hughes), also a Ballyhaunis native.
Based in Somerset, McAleer will perform a song about her family, some of whom came from Ballyveel on the Logboy side of Ballyhaunis.
“It’ll be a great night, everyone is welcome,” Frank Greally told this column.
The Annagh Magazine Society thanks all who have submitted content for this year’s magazine and reminds everyone that the deadline this year is October 13.
According to the Society: “Any material received after that date cannot be guaranteed for inclusion. We urge PROs and secretaries of clubs and organisations in the town and parish to submit reports on activities in the past year and plans for the future, as soon as possible...
"The gallery of wedding photographs is building up but there is still room and an invitation is extended to all newly married couples to submit their picture for inclusion.”
All items can be emailed to info@annaghmag.ie or submitted to any committee member.
Clann Machua drama group will present 'The Cheque's in the Post', a hilarious comedy, in the Town Hall Theatre, Kiltimagh this Thursday and Friday night, October 12 and 13, with curtain up each night at 8pm. Tickets, priced €15, are available from Langan's off-licence or on the door.
A memorial walk will honour the memory of Karen Campbell, a much-loved member of the Western Care day service in Ballyhaunis.
Organised by Karen’s father Terence with the collaboration of the Western Care staff in Ballyhaunis, the walk will commence from St Anne’s Church, Shanvaghera, Knock on October 14 at 11am. The walk will then proceed to Knock, through the Knock Shrine grounds, before finishing with refreshments at St John’s Welcome Centre.
Donations on the day and through an online GoFundMe (‘Karen Campbell Memorial Walk’) campaign will benefit Ballyhaunis and Knock day services at Western Care Association.
Ballyhaunis man Noel Lyons is central to a Latvian cultural festival in Claremorris from October 13 to 15.
The local Latvian community will showcase its handicrafts at a morning market on the Square on Saturday, October 14, with several musical events featuring Latvian musicians in Warde's and the D’Alton Inn on Friday and Saturday.
Businesses and universities from Latvia will also travel to Claremorris for the event alongside Juris Stalmeistars, Latvia’s ambassador to Ireland. Businesses and universities in Latvia are keen to find partners in Ireland, according to Noel, who established Latwest with his partner Skarleta as a support group for the local Latvian community. Among the firms travelling is Hansa Timber Ltd which is seeking Irish distributors for its firewood products. Contact Noel or Skarleta at Latwest on 089-2667477.
A top prize of €1,000 is up for grabs in a raffle being organised for November 19 to help pay for recent extensive refurbishments to the Community Hall, also known as the parochial hall.
An additional 25 prizes including a €150 Aldi shopping voucher are also on offer in the draw with all prizes listed on the Ballyhaunis Community Council website at www.ballyhauniscc.ie. Tickets cost €10 with a book of five for €40.
Used by many local groups, the hall will shortly also feature a community cinema. In excess of €450,000 worth of refurbishments were carried out by Ballyhaunis Community Council, a registered charity which was handed the building on a long-term lease by the Tuam diocese. Some 65% of the figure was covered by a grant from LEADER, the rural development programme co-funded by the EU, with the rest of the funds provided by the Community Council through borrowings and fundraising.
Tickets can be purchased at SuperValu on October 13 or by calling 087 9777899 or writing to ballyhauniscommunitycouncil@gmail.com. All are welcome to attend the monthly meeting of the Community Council on October 11 at 8pm.
There was a large turnout at the Community Hall on October 1 to watch a short film made by Kathy Raftery on Corporal Patrick Gallagher.
The short film is part of a longer feature documentary and tells the historical story of a trip by Corporal Patrick 'Bob' Gallagher from the United States to visit his family one last time before he departed to fight with US troops in the Vietnam War.
Filmmaker Raftery, who works in the lighting department at RTÉ, enlisted members of St Patrick’s Drama Society in Ballyhaunis to act out the likely conversation in the Gallagher household during the visit home by the corporal, who was killed in Da Nang in 1967. Having moved to New York in 1962, the 23-year-old saved the lives of three comrades in Vietnam, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross, the US Navy’s highest honour.
A native of Ballinlough, Kathy Raftery thanked Ballyhaunis Community Council for being very welcoming and assisting with the screening of the film whose production was supported by Creative Ireland and Mayo County Council.
Papal warnings about inaction on climate change were raised by local priest Fr Stephen Farragher at an event organised to mark the Catholic Church’s ‘Season of Creation’ by Ballyhaunis Pastoral Council in the local Community Garden.
The event heard prayers for action on climate change, which Pope Francis has warned is causing “irreversible” damage to the planet. In a recent encyclical, the Pope criticised those who "deny, conceal, gloss over or relativise the issue", saying that it was no longer possible to deny the human origins of climate change. He also castigated western consumerist lifestyles which have driven climate change and biodiversity loss.
During the service, Kevin Henry, chair of the pastoral council, read from the Patrick Kavanagh poem ‘The One,’ a paean to nature which describes how an April blast of floral colour in rural Monaghan showed "That beautiful, beautiful, beautiful God was breathing His love by a cut-away bog.”
Other speakers at the event were local Church of Ireland Reverend Xanthe Pratt as well as members of three groups seeking to protect and promote local nature.
Mary Donnelly, secretary of Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns, described the group’s efforts to protect biodiversity while Jenny Glynn described her experiences as a member of the Community Garden which allows locals to grow organic vegetables on a site that also creates space for nature. Secretary of Ballyhaunis Beekeepers' Association, Colm Bohan, described the essential role pollinators play in the production of human food and the perils bees face from human over-use of chemical herbicides and insecticides.
Singers, dancers and storytellers are invited to the Irish Night at the Community Hall on October 14, starting at 8pm. The evening is popular with locals who come to hear local traditional musicians play while dancing enthusiasts try set dancing and waltzes. Tea and coffee is served on the night which is free and open to all. The event is also part of Mayo County Council’s annual Social Inclusion Week programme of events.
Congratulations to Michelle Lyons, Knockbrack, winner of €470 on October 1 on an envelope sold via Ballyhaunis GAA Club's direct debit.
