The economics of maintaining the Mayo Gaeltacht

Fri, Dec 30, 2016

In 1851, the Mayo Gaeltacht stretched west across the county from a line between Kilasser and Ballindine, excluding the town of Ballina. The official census figures for that year record that 65.8 per cent of the county’s population could speak the Irish language. By 1926, that figure had plummeted to 36.8 per cent and today, 47.2 per cent of the Mayo population claim the ability to speak the language, though to vastly different standards. Statistics for where the language is living and in everyday use are more important and telling. In that regard, the Mayo Gaeltacht is now confined to the Erris region, the eastern half of Achill Island, the Corraun Peninsula and a pocket around Tourmakeady on the western shore of Lough Mask.

Christmas in Mayo, one hundred years ago

Fri, Dec 23, 2016

This is it, the last Friday before Christmas. Just two days to go, and no doubt you are busy completing Christmas time chores like whitewashing your house or making a three branched tallow candle. The way we celebrate, observe or mark Christmas has changed and will continue to change. That is not a criticism of modern life, that is life. Traditions and customs evolve, they always have done, they always will. How did you mark St Martin’s Day on November 11 last? Did you kill a rooster and sprinkle the four corners of your house with its blood to keep all danger and trouble away? Rightly considered bizarre today, but that was a custom in Mayo some 100 years ago. Recognising that those long established traditions were in danger of being forgotten to an albeit slowly modernising Ireland, the Irish Folklore Commission developed a recording scheme that ran between 1937 and 1938 and which invited Irish Free State primary schoolchildren to compile and submit folklore from their local area. The children responded in their tens of thousands with folktales, customs and crafts, gleaned from their extended families and written down by their own hands. Thankfully, schoolchildren from across Mayo participated and their returns document our county’s not too distant Christmas beliefs and practices. 

Young Nellie Caulfield from Tulrohaun, close to Mayo’s borders with Roscommon and Galway, paints a picture in her recordings of a time when everyone celebrated the Nativity. Nellie’s research added that in some places it was a mortal sin to bear enmity for past offences. At Christmas, she continued, every door is thrown open and everything in the house is shared willingly with whoever enters to ask for shelter or refreshment. There was an observance of forming a three branched tallow candle to commemorate the Trinity. Each of the branches was lit at dusk on Christmas Eve, but all three were extinguished at midnight. The remains of the triple candle were, however, carefully preserved until the following year as a protection against the visits of all evil spirits except whiskey. The practice of leaving one’s door open was not just to welcome mortal travellers. After interviewing his 40-year-old father Patrick, schoolboy James McDonnell wrote that the people of his village, Belcarra near Castlebar, left their door open on Christmas night so that the Blessed Virgin would have shelter. They would light a candle on that night to direct the Blessed Virgin so that she may leave her blessing on the house. In James’ village, the old people used to give bread to all the animals and at twelve o'clock on Christmas night all the dumb animals would begin to talk and each of them would go down on their knees.

Senator alleges GMIT Castlebar applicants are being told to go to Galway

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

A Mayo based senator has alleged this week in the Seanad that potential students who inquire about courses in the GMIT campus in Castlebar are being steered towards the Galway campus if a similar course is on offer there and that the Mayo campus is being "bullied" by its overseeing campus. Fine Gael senator Paddy Burke raised the issue of the future of the Castlebar campus of the institute with the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, in the upper house of the Oireachtas as fears for the future of the facility in Castlebar have intesified recently. Those fears were further increased late last week when the head of the Mayo campus Dr Deirdre Garvey stepped down from her position.

Ballina councillors give Knockmore scheme go ahead

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

The elected members of the Ballina Municipal District gave their approval for a proposed development of eight houses in Knockmore by the council this week. The plan will see the construction of three two bed houses, four three bed houses, and one four bed house in the development. The plans for this project were initially made back in 2009, but the economic circumstances in the country changed that, but now the project has been sanctioned to go ahead again.

Jobs at risk over procurement directive says councillor

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

A new directive from the Office of Government Procurement which has seen Mayo County Council no longer able to purchase tools and small items from local suppliers is going to cost jobs, one councillor said this week. Speaking at the December meeting of the local authority, Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne raised the issue after an unsigned note was given to members of the outdoor staff of the council outlining this new procedure.

Another win for Mayo's Mike

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

Solar Bones, a novel written in a single 223-page sentence by Mayo author Mike McCormack has been voted the Bord Gáis Energy Book of the Year for 2016. Described as “a hymn to modern small-town life”, the experimental novel received unanimously positive reviews around the time of its publication.

Flood fears remain across the county

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

This time last year large swathes of the county were under water with flooding in the south Mayo area particularly bad, the issue once again raised its head at the December meeting of Mayo County Council this week. The elected members were given a presentation by senior executive engineer Dave Mellett in regard to how the council should make a submission to the OPW on the Draft Flood Risk Management Plan for the Moy and Kilalla Bay and Erriff, Clew Bay, Blacksod, Broadhaven.

Mayo Garda chief satisfied that Knock not main hub for drugs coming in

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

Senator Michelle Mulherin this week at the Mayo Joint Policing Committee's quarterly meeting which was held in Ireland West Airport Knock expressed her concern about the lack of a sniffer dog to detect drugs on incoming flights at the airport. She criticised the Revenue Commissioners for the removal of a sniffer dog that had been previously at the airport. She was also critical that the Revenue Commissioners did not send a representative to the meeting to discuss the dog's removal.

The siege of Blackrock Lighthouse

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

Fifteen kilometres southwest of Mayo's Mullet Peninsula, beyond the pillars of the Inishkea and Duvillaun islands, lies the isolated island of Blackrock. Appearing on the horizon like an abandoned vessel, this small, rocky, outcrop has been without a permanent resident for many decades, but the sound of the crashing waves and the constant coating of spray is a reminder of the horror that almost claimed the lives of three men in the winter of 1942-43 when the rock became the scene of a prolonged and frightening wartime siege.

Last of the Ballina GMA funding assigned

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

The General Municipal Allocation (GMA) assigned to each of the four municipal districts in the county has been one of the biggest bones of contention for councillors all across the county since the rejigging of the local government system in 2014, with councillors continuously calling for an increase in the allocations across the county. However the Ballina Municipal District still had €4,000 unallocated from the 2016 fund of €525,000 this week, which had to be approved by a resolution of the district or the funding would be lost to the area.

Pilgrimage to depart from Knock for NY next year

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

The year 2017 will be a remarkable year for the people of Knock and the Irish diaspora in New York as plans are under way at Knock Shrine to lead a group out from Ireland West Airport to New York next May.

More than fifty schools in Mayo without educational psychologists — Calleary

Fri, Dec 16, 2016

Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo Dara Calleary says he is alarmed by new figures which reveal that 53 schools across Mayo do not have a National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) psychologist assigned to them. The statistic is contained in a Parliamentary Reply submitted by the party.

E-paper

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