Local Notes: Tooreen pupils perform at National Concert Hall
A group of musicians from Tooreen National School who were finalists in the Walton's RTÉ Lyric FM Music for Schools Competition recently. The children were selected as one of the top six schools in the country and they performed their musical piece in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. They are pictured outside the National Concert Hall with their teacher Edel Fleming and accompanist Oisín McCann.
Private investors are piling back into the local rental market, prompted by high rents, according to local real estate agent Kevin Kirrane.
“The big exit from the rental market is over. Investors are looking to buy family homes now so they charge market rent on their new investment," Mr Kirrane explained.
A reform of the national rental rules to include new safeguards for tenants had prompted some landlords to quit the sector earlier this year. But market rents in Ballyhaunis have soared in the past year with €1,400 being asked for semi-detached houses in local estates. A two-bedroom townhouse is being offered at €1,250 per month.
Mr Kirrane thinks that reform of the planning system for one-off rural housing could prompt a wave of home building but is wary how the reform will play out.
“I could see a lot more houses built in the countryside if they really relax the planning rules, even for two or three years.
“The devil will be in the detail when they change the planning rules. It’s no good letting family members build on family land if there is no work in the area.”
The high prices being asked for modest homes is likely to drive interest in self-builds, Mr Kirrane expects.
“I see the asking price for a new two-bed bungalow in Claremorris is €330,000. That kind of asking price will encourage people to try and build their own… If they can get planning.”
Much will depend on the implementation of any reformed planning regulations, he admitted.
“I’m not sure government will open the flood gates on planning. Will it be a blanket change across the whole country or will the local councils still have the last say?”
A youth service in Ballyhaunis is one of five across the county that will offer hot meals to youths during the summer.
Run by the national youth service Foróige, the BEY Project will be grant-aided to run the expanded Summer Holiday Meals Pilot Programme for 2026. The number of projects funded by that Programme will this year rise to 77 youth services nationwide (from 36), with funding increasing to €600,000.
From this week, young people aged 10 to 18 attending participating UBU youth services will be able to access a hot or substantial meal during the school summer holidays, explained Minister Alan Dillon, who said: “This is a practical Fine Gael measure that will help families, support communities and make sure young people are looked after during the summer months.”
It’s not clear if the meals will be available to all youths in Ballyhaunis.
Minister Dillon said: “Parents know the pressure that can come during the school holidays. This programme gives extra support to families and ensures young people can access a proper meal in a safe, welcoming community setting.”
Based on Clare Street, the BEY programme has run an outreach programme for Roma youths as well as music workshop and a Lego group for youths.
Ballyhaunis-based Climate Café Connacht welcomed Biodiversity Officer for Mayo County Council, Sheila Murphy, at its recent monthly Climate Café. The group discussed the nine species of Irish bats, from the most common (Soprano pipistrelle) to the least common.
One of the coordinators of the Climate Café explained: “Bats are all legally protected and have an important ecological role in feeding on thousands of insects every night (using echolocation) when they don’t hibernate. Bats have complex social lives and roosts, and need a range of habitats such as woodlands, hedgerows, and buildings with, ideally, slated roofs to sleep in.
"There are bat boxes now available in Ireland through QuickCrop for those interested. A range of different bat monitoring equipment is available online, and a great resource to learn more about bats, and get involved in bat monitoring, is through Bat Conservation Ireland.”
Sheila Murphy explained how bright nocturnal lights in city landscapes isolates populations of bats - for example the lesser horseshoe bat species is not able to cross Galway City which stands between its traditional breeding grounds in Cong and Clare.
Pressures on local rivers from pollution and climate change were examined in a fun presentation delivered by Dutch hydrologist Dr Jan Verkade who gave a guest online lecture to the senior room pupils of Logboy National School.
An advisor to the Irish government on flood relief projects in Clonmel, Verkade works at Delft Hydraulics, a consultancy located in the Dutch city of Delft. Harnessing Holland’s long expertise with flood management, the firm advises governments and weather forecasters worldwide, including Met Eireann.
Dr Verkade explained how hotter temperatures brought by climate change have increased the occurrence of droughts, drying rivers and reducing water and oxygen for river fauna and flora. Increased rainfall, meanwhile, has strained the ability of rivers to cope, leading to severe flooding in some cases. Runoff from agriculture, urban wastewater and household waste has made an increasing number of Irish rivers unfit for drinking water or swimming.
Local householders with solar panels have been counting the impact of the recent sunny weather on their electricity bills.
One local householder said her 14 panels had yielded nearly €100 in excess electricity exported to the grid over the past fortnight.
“That pretty much means my next bill will be reduced to below zero,” said the householder who uses solar panels to run her own appliances during the day while also charging a battery she uses to run the house after dark. “Summer is definitely the time when you generate a lot of excess power which you sell to the grid thus reducing your bill… it would be harder to do this in the winter but over the whole year there is a large saving in electricity bills if you have solar panels,” she told this column.
Congratulations to Eleanor Freyne, long-serving librarian at Ballyhaunis Library, on her retirement last week. Eleanor’s several decades of service have been praised by the many readers assisted and encouraged over the years by her kindness and help.
Several hundred Muslims attended the recent Eid celebrations in Ballyhaunis, with hundreds sitting out in the green space adjacent to the local mosque on Clare Street.
Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, is a major holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God.
The warm, sunny weather made it a memorable occasion, said one of the worshippers, who explained how prayers were followed by a communal feast.
“We prayed outdoors, then we had a big feast… we also had an ice cream van for the kids,” said the local.
The Muslim population in Ballyhaunis has expanded in recent years with the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers from north Africa and South Asia. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Somalia are among the leading sources of asylum seekers coming to Ireland.
A play area in the Maples Estate in Ballyhaunis, which is also home to a cricket practice facility, has become the focus of attention from locals after the gate to the facility was padlocked. Various social media posts by residents called for the unlocking of the sports area to be used as a playground.
A spokesperson for Ballyhaunis Cricket Club said: "The lock was put on after discussing with councillors and the County Council. It's always left with a mess with children climbing and throwing stones on the astro carpet.
“The kids have ripped the carpet, they climb the nets that were recently replaced at a huge cost. It's extremely dangerous for the kids. Video and photo evidence of kids climbing and hanging upside down was sent to the councillors and County Council and they suggested as it's dangerous for the kids it can stay locked.”
In 2025, Mayo County Council upgraded the cricket facility which was officially opened in 2016 after a €90,000 grant was secured through Mayo Sports Partnership and the facility was opened by Minister of State for Sport and Tourism Michael Ring. A newsletter from Mayo Sports Partnership (an office of Mayo County Council) from 2016 described the cricket practice area as “the first of its kind by a local authority in the Republic of Ireland”.
The facility is described by the local cricket club as “the only facility provided to Ballyhaunis Cricket Club for training, although it's a public facility for the sake of safety it was suggested the gate be kept locked".
A reader of this column, who is a teacher, wrote in response to a recent article quoting several local primary school teachers’ opinions on the Catholic Church’s patronage of local schools.
“How can a non-believer teach a child a religion and prepare them for a sacrament that in many cases neither the child nor the parents don’t believe either?” wrote the teacher, who was writing from personal experience. “It is both a waste of time and very disingenuous.
“In other countries, religious preparation is something that happens after school. Kids who want to make their Holy Communion can very well do so but it’s a private matter, something that happens in the church or the church hall of their parish.
“I can’t imagine a state-funded school in New York spending up to a third of the teaching day in the run up to Holy Communion focused on preparing for this sacrament.
“The reality is the current system doesn’t even serve the needs or goals of the church because most of these people will rarely be seen in a church again after the Communion day.”
