Local Notes: Geraldine retires after 47 years with Ballyhaunis firm
Josephine Gallagher (centre) with her colleagues at Major Equipment in Ballyhaunis on her retirement day after 47 years with the company.
Casual trading is not permitted in Ballyhaunis, according to a Mayo County Council official.
“Under the Casual Trading Act, which dates from the early 1980s, for casual trading to take place there have to be casual trading bye- laws in place for the town under which licences to trade are then issued by the council,” explained Padraic Flanagan, the top council official for the Claremorris municipal district of which Ballyhaunis is part. “These licences are only for designated locations set out in the bye-laws. There are no casual trading bye-laws in place for Ballyhaunis that we know of, so casual trading cannot be carried out.”
A trader with a regular stall in Ballyhaunis square contacted this column recently to say he had been approached by the Gardaí who asked him if he had sought permission from Mayo County Council to erect his stall on the square.
“I have been setting up my stall there every Saturday for years,” said the trader, who sells clothes.
Mr Flanagan said there are some exceptions under the Casual Trading Act "if someone is selling their own produce, for example, vegetables, or if there are old market rights, etc".
Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns is gearing up for this year's Good Friday community clean-up on Friday, April 18th (weather permitting).
“We are encouraging residents' groups, sporting organisations, neighbourhoods and individuals to team up and carry out a clean-up in their own local area or a particular black spot,” said the group.”
All litter collected will be disposed of by Mayo County Council.
Bags, gloves, hi-viz vests, litter pickers, etc, will be available at the Community Hall from 10 to 11am on Good Friday morning, April 18th.
“Please join with Tidy Towns in this worthwhile community initiative as part of An Taisce's National Spring Clean, Ireland's nationwide anti-litter campaign which takes place during the whole month of April,” said the Tidy Towns.
Everyone is welcome to attend a meeting of the Tidy Towns committee on Wednesday next, April 9th, at 7.30pm in the Community Hall.
A record 64,888 passengers used Ballyhaunis train station in 2024, up significantly on the 56,980 passengers who alighted and boarded at the station in 2023, according to data provided to this column by Irish Rail.
Irish Rail added a new Westport-bound morning service in 2023 and in 2024 added a new Westport-Dublin service calling at Ballyhaunis in the late afternoon. Staff at the station have indicated that take-up of the new services has been strong, with commuters travelling to work embracing the new timetable.
Local estate agent Gerry Coffey says farmers are getting up to €300 per acre in new leases of farmland.
“If it’s good land its fetching €200 to €300, that’s for new leases,” he told the .
Mixed quality land is fetching €150 to €200, he said.
Prices are being driven by farmers seeking to acquire land for potential changes in nitrates emission regulations. Prices are also rising on landowners wanting a dividend from higher beef prices, said Mr Coffey.
The average price of an animal is up by €400 on this time last year. A few years ago, farmers were protesting at meat factories because they were paying €3.50 a kilo and now they’re paying up on €8 a kilo.
“Owners of land see that and they want a bigger slice of the pie," said Mr Coffey.
Farmers who spoke to this column acknowledged that land rents are rising but said rates vary according to land quality and location.
“Most land in East Mayo is of mixed quality. You rent a farm and you get one-third good land, one-third middling quality land and one-third bog,” said one farmer. “It’s very hard to find a farm of land that you could call good land and that you’d pay €200 an acre for.”
Another farmer said prices are driven by location and facilities.
“If the land is good and it’s next door to the farmer then chances are he’d pay €200 to secure that land, especially if the land is well fenced and there’s water laid on.”
Mayo County Council’s integration team is holding a ‘Moving Into the Community’ advice clinic for residents of the Old Convent, the local International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centre, on Wednesday, April 9.
The event is designed to assist those in direct provision accommodation to “move out of the centre into the community” and will look at “all aspects of the move, budgeting towards a move, maintaining reduced stress levels while running a household,” according to a description of the event.
Attendees at the event, which is organised as part of the council’s Social Inclusion Month, will learn “how to run a house with energy efficiency and care for the environment".
The Old Convent was last year the scene of several protests when long-term residents of the centre, who had secured permission to remain in Ireland, were asked to leave their accommodation. The protesting residents told the at the time that they were unable to find private accommodation while others said they struggled to find accommodation at a rent level which would be covered by the housing assistance payment (HAP) they were entitled to.
A resident of the Old Convent explained how he lives with his family in a bungalow-style building in the centre, while working full-time locally. The asylum seeker explained how he travelled to Dublin for the first interview with the Department of Justice on his application, after an 18-month stay in Ballyhaunis.
“When I arrived in Dublin with my family, we went to the international protection office to claim asylum and the following day we were sent to Ballyhaunis by taxi.”
Local dairy farmers are braced for impact from the Trump administration’s 20% tariffs on EU products with Knock-based dairy farmer Jarlath Walsh predicting a hit to sales of Irish butter in the American market.
“Butter sales in the US were hit the last time Trump was in and he put tariffs on the EU," he remarked.
The Irish dairy sector is however helped by currently weak milk supply globally, with milk production in both the EU and US down in volume terms, creating more demand and higher prices for milk and dairy ingredients.
“The US isn’t the only market in the world, so maybe we can fill in a gap somewhere else,” said Mr Walsh.
“The impact of the new tariffs won’t necessarily be felt in 2025 but it will be felt in the long term,” he added.
Mr Walsh is worried that in the longer-term dairy farmers will be forced to bear some of the costs of the Trump tariffs by taking lower milk prices to keep prices stable in major export markets like the US.
“The buck always stops at the farmer,” he said.
Several agricultural machinery makers located in the wider Ballyhaunis area and with export sales in the US are braced for impact from the blanket 20% tariff placed on all EU goods by American President Donald Trump last week.
Michael Farrelly, CEO of the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA), told this column that a range of machinery makers from Mayo had been growing their sales of mowers and other similar items in the US market.
“Irish machinery manufacturers have a reputation for making very robust products as they’re built for the Irish conditions with heavier soils and heavy silage crops due to strong grass growing conditions.”
He hopes, however, that strong agricultural commodity prices will ensure there are plenty of customers for farm machinery in the domestic market.
“The fundamentals of agriculture are still very strong. Beef prices are high and dairy prices are going to continue to remain strong for the next two years.”
