Search Results for 'Mayo County'

On Sunday the Carra Classic 8k was won by John Byrne (Mayo AC) in 27:29 - the first woman home was Kathy Gleeson (Claremorris) in 30:56. The Carra Classic is part of the Great Lakes series of spring races and 160 competitors made it to the finish line. 

History was indeed made on November 8 when Donald Trump was elected 45th president of the United States. I am not quite sure why history was made, a Republican beating a Democrat is not new, but it certainly feels like something immense has happened. Only something immense could sway the US electorate from voting to return a black Democrat in 2012, to voting four years later for a white billionaire Republican who holds overtly racist and misogynistic views. 

It was the one topic that everyone wanted to have their say on and throw their support behind this week at the March meeting of Mayo County Council. The future of the GMIT campus in Castlebar has been a major topic of discussion around the county in recent weeks and it was no different inside the council chamber. Some 25 councillors spoke on the topic in a debate that lasted well over an hour, and the one strong message coming from all of those who spoke was that everything that could be done to ensure the survival and the future growth of the third level facility in the county would be done.

In a little under five years time, Ireland will roll out the red commemoration carpets for a year long celebration to mark the centenary of the Irish Free State. In the decades preceding the independent state, unionist politicians and their constituents vigorously, and even militantly, opposed any form of self-determination for Ireland as they believed Home Rule under a Catholic majority would mean Rome rule. The fears of those unionists were realised. The Free State, like the British state before it, inadequately supervised Catholic institutions tasked with caring for sections of Irish society and thereby put at risk the very children of the nation that independence was destined to cherish. The Free State's successors were equally culpable of neglect as each fed its own citizens to an ultra conservative, practically unregulated, system of 250 Church-run industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages, hostels and homes from the 1920s up until the 1990s. Since the 1990s, criminal cases and inquiries have established that thousands of children were abused by hundreds of priests and several Catholic religious orders were found to have participated in or concealed child abuse. 

"Have we now got to the stage of having the disposable shovel? Because for the price you've told us we're buying them for, you'd do well to get one fixed for less than that price," asked Cllr Richard Finn this week at the March meeting of Mayo County Council. The councillor was responding to a presentation given by the council's procurement officer John Maughan to the elected members.

The Mayo Healthy Reading Scheme was recently launched at Castlebar Library. This joint initiative by the HSE and Mayo County Council Library Services aims to promote the availability of a wide variety of self help books on a range of common psychological, emotional, and parenting issues. A total of 88 books are available free to all library members at the various library branches throughout the county. Topics covered include bereavement, depression, relationship problems, parenting issues, and self esteem. Some of the books available include Children and Bullying, Overcoming Depression, Overcoming Childhood Trauma, The Mindful Way Through Depression, and Parent Power. All of the books have been recommended by health professionals.

There was good news for Castlebar Boxing Club this week, when it was confirmed that they would be getting a new home in the county town. At the February meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District a lease between the boxing club and Mayo County Council was approved for a building located at Lough Lannagh Holiday Village.

Community representatives and Mayo County Council joined together at the annual Local Authorities Members Association (LAMA) awards in Dublin, where Mayo County Council was shortlisted as a finalist with a record number of nine projects across seven different categories.

The raising of a loan of €2.5 million for the purchase of 40 acres of land in the Westport House estate by Mayo County Council, along with some other land the council is looking at buying in the county, was passed without any formal objections at the council's February meeting on Monday.

Businesses from Castlebar have been finding out about the latest ways to cut their energy costs at a special energy efficiency briefing held by competitive energy provider Energia. The meeting was hosted by Castlebar Tidy Towns Committee, Castlebar Chamber of Commerce, and Mayo County Council.