International prize for Mayo novelist

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

Louisburgh author Mike McCormack has been celebrating on the double this week, with the news that his third novel Solar Bones, which is written as a single sentence novel, was this week picked as the winner of the Goldsmiths Prize for Fiction and with it the €10,000 prize money for the winner and has been shortlisted for Irish Book of the Year. The Goldsmiths Prize was established in 2013 to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with Goldsmiths University and to reward fiction that breaks the mould or opens up new possibilities for the novel form. The annual prize of £10,000 is awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best. McCormack was announced as the winner of this award on Wednesday.

Chambers calls on Minister for Education and An Taoiseach to ensure the future of GMIT

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

Fianna Fáil Deputy for Mayo Lisa Chambers has expressed her concern at a recent review carried out by the Higher Education Authority, published by The Irish Times, which found that six institutes of technology are “vulnerable” and face immediate sustainability challenges with the GMIT being one of them.

Speaking on the matter Deputy Chambers said: “This report is deeply concerning and the problems facing our institutes of technology [IoTs] must be tackled immediately. I raised my concerns for the GMIT with the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, back in July and he expressed to me that the HEA has a policy framework in place for engaging with vulnerable IoTs like GMIT, which requires institutes to submit a three year plan to return them to a balanced budget situation.

Corrib Onshore Gas Pipeline voted Engineering Project of the Year

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

The Corrib Onshore Gas Pipeline has been voted Engineering Project of the Year, it has been announced. The Corrib Gas Field, approximately 83km off the coast of Mayo, has become a critical piece of national infrastructure that will produce much of Ireland’s future gas supplies over the next 15 to 20 years. It is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the State’s history, costing approximately €3.5 billion and will contribute some €6 billion to Ireland’s GDP.

The project was undertaken by Shell E&P (Ireland) Ltd, RPS Group Ltd, Roadbridge Ltd, BAM and W&F JV and won out in the flagship category of the seventh annual Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards, held in association with ESB, at a ceremony in the InterContinental Hotel in Dublin.

Lorna Quinn recognised for being disabled friendly

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

The Mayo branch of Junior Chamber International was toasting the success of one of its own recently at the 2016 National Friendly Business Awards that took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Galway. Lorna Quinn from Lorna's Mobile Hairdressing, which is based in Achill, was selected as the winner of Disability Access award at the National Friendly Business Awards ceremony.

Plenty of reasons to attend MeetWest

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

Time is quickly running out to book your place for one of the premier business networking events in Ireland this year, MeetWest 2016. Now in its sixth year, Meetwest is to take place on November 24 and 25 in the McWilliam Park Hotel, Claremorris. There are many reasons why you should attend Meetwest and the organisers have tried to capture some of the most important ones below.

Xposé – Swinford style next weekend

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

Swinford’s hospice shop will stage a glittering takeover of Swinford Cultural Centre on Saturday November 19 and Sunday November 20 next, all in aid of Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation.

Mayo fiddle player scoops top prize at Oireachtas Festival

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

Éadaoin Ní Mhaiciín, from Claremorris, won the fiddle competition at the recent Oireachtas Festival in Kilarney. The annual Oireachtas Festival is a mecca for lovers and performers of the traditional arts, and this year’s competitions again received a huge number of entrants aged from six years to 68. The range of competitions included storytelling, sean-nós dancing and singing, and the famous lúibíní competition in which two people perform a rhyming story through song.

Another milestone passed in Ballinrobe Town Hall fundraising

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

The drive to rebuild Ballinrobe Town Hall has passed a number of milestones, including €130,000 collected locally. A target of €400,000 has been set for local donations and the next wave of the campaign will see a number of fund-raising events taking place.

The committee, local elected representatives, and other supporters are working on a number of fronts to advance the campaign, including interacting with various Government agencies and departments to secure funding.

A Day for the Cat in the Hat with St Joseph’s, Castlebar

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

"Oh the thinks you can think"! St Joseph’s transition year students, Castlebar, have been doing more than thinking ‘thinks’ these past few weeks. They have been busy rehearsing and bringing to life all of the favourite Dr Seuss characters including Horton the Elephant, The Cat in the Hat, Gertrude McFuzz, Lazy Mayzie and JoJo and many more wonderful characters in their performance of Seussical The Musical. This show, this magical musical extravaganza, will take you from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus and to the invisible world of the Whos.

Dublin in twelve hours, and that is a promise

Fri, Nov 11, 2016

Through the years of kingdom, empire, dominion, republic and continental union, County Mayo has retained the rarely advantageous honour of being among the most westerly outposts of each political entity. The county's distance from the heart of government and its demanding terrain seriously hampered any mode of movement, in and out of Mayo. At the passing of the Acts of Union in 1800, the Crown accepted that responding to sporadic violent opposition to the legislation would be difficult considering a regiment on foot would take six days to travel from Dublin to the west. Correspondence between the British authorities in Dublin and their surrogates in Mayo would therefore be all the more urgent. However, at this time, it took the swift mail coach, running through the night, more than 30 hours to reach the county capital. Logistical challenges existed too for the movement of produce and for travelling men of business. Any coach journey covering 60 miles a day was considered efficient. To reach even Mayo's eastern border by coach from Dublin would have taken two days with good conditions. Land transport, at the turn of the 19th century, was undependable and slow. As a result, long distance travel on the part of most people was simply not undertaken due the many obstacles it raised. 

That all changed with the arrival in Ireland of Carlo Bianconi. The Italian had landed in Ireland in 1802 and had set up a small two car service in Clonmel in 1815. Charles Bianconi (as he was by then known) began offering cheap and expeditious travelling across extended distances throughout Ireland. Despite the cars being uncovered and open to the harsh Irish elements, the services proved hugely successful as they were scheduled, fast, and many stages on each route had a Bianconi owned inn in which food and lodgings were supplied before the traveller progressed. Bianconi’s horse drawn transport operated in Castlebar from 1836. His Mayo network was extended to include a daily service from Longford to Ballina that ran through Foxford. Bianconi revolutionised movement for the people of Mayo when in August 1851 he announced an ambitious new route that would take a patron from Ballina to Dublin in one day. The two horse car would leave Ballina every morning at 5.45am (except Sunday) and would progress first to Castlebar, then Westport, Leenane, Letterfrack, and on to Clifden in time for the mail coach from Galway to Dublin and in time for the Westport and Castlebar day coach to Galway railway station. Bianconi's new route announcement was well timed to coincide with the opening of the Galway railway station that same month. In addition to the two horse car, the entrepreneur timetabled a well-equipped four horse coach to leave Westport for Castlebar every morning.  After Castlebar, the coach would pass through Ballinrobe and Shrule on its journey to Galway. The capacity for the four horse coach was 15 passengers, four inside and 11 outside. Bianconi boasted that by availing of his routes, the Mayo traveller could be in Dublin that same evening enjoying an early dinner. 

Community shocked by death of couple

Fri, Nov 04, 2016

The tight-knit community of Irishtown was stunned and saddened this week by the discovery of the bodies of a well known local couple Kitty Fitzgerald and her husband Tom at their home in Knockadoon, about 1km from Irishtown village close to the Galway border. Their bodies were found on Tuesday afternoon shortly after 3pm, with Kitty's body found inside the house and Tom's body outside the home. Their son, who was also at the scene, was brought to University College Hospital Galway before being transferred to the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for treatment to serious injuries.

Arts Committee to investigate state funding of Mary Robinson Library

Fri, Nov 04, 2016

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is to invite Minister Heath Humphreys, Mayo County Council, and NUIG to come before the committee to discuss the proposed multi-million euro Mary Robinson Library in Ballina.

Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín, the Cathaoirleach of the Arts, Heritage Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Committee, stated: “The locating of the Mary Robinson’s archive in Ballina would be of great value to the local economy and of great interest to the many people in the region. Of course many people in Mayo are rightly proud of her achievements. However, the great cost to the state of the proposed project and the method in which decisions have been made are of serious concern to our committee.

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