Search Results for 'Peter Hynes'

The designation of Ireland West Airport Knock (IWAK) as strategic development zone (SDZ) this week by the Cabinet has been warmly welcomed around the county, the push to get the airport designated as an SDZ has been an ongoing issue for almost 10 years - with a number of different plans being put in place by the local authority to ensure the airport qualified for this designation.

The multi-purpose Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology’s Castlebar campus staged the energetic opening ceremony of Mayo Day 2017 last Friday evening. The bank holiday weekend events were long billed to be a celebration of Mayo - past, present and future - and with no little amount of imagination and obvious hard graft, the organisers over-performed in achieving their aim. In his Mayo Day promotional video, director Lorcan Hynes beautifully wove an emotional message around the cliffs of Mayo and the skyscrapers of the world. The message invited the Mayo diaspora to return to a future Mayo, where prosperity will once again create opportunity. Our diaspora was to the fore during Mayo Day and for good reason as Peter Hynes, Mayo County Council’s chief executive, informed the opening ceremony that the global dispersion with Mayo heritage stands at 3.5 million people. Their affinity with their home county has led to Mayo associations growing up in the world’s biggest cities. Just as Mayo currently fits into current global themes of emigration and identity, so it did in the past when the international themes were revolution and republicanism. Those earlier themes, and in particular the political relationship they spawned between Ireland and France, were discussed at the fascinating Mayo Day La L’Arbre de la Liberté - Liberty Tree Conference on Friday and Saturday. The two-day conference offered an impressive line-up of historians and authors.

Almost ten years on since it was first mooted, a strategic development zone (SDZ) for Ireland West Airport Knock could be about to get approval, the chief executive of Mayo County Council, Peter Hynes said this week.

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.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny on Saturday, announced the creation of 20 new jobs and a €6 million investment in the Marine Institute's facility in Newport.  The 20 new positions will be based at the Marine Institute, Newport, where they will be engaged on a number of research projects funded from a secured pot of €6 million in research grants from a number of agencies including Science Foundation Ireland, Interreg, EU H2020/European Research Council, European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the British Research Council.

On Friday morning, the Browne family confirmed that it has agreed with Westport House and Estate's administrators on the sale of the historic landmark in Westport. In February 2016, the family had reluctantly agreed to the sale of Westport House and Estate. They impressed upon their advisers that the best way to secure the future of this jewel in the crown of Mayo tourism was to attract an investor who would purchase the historic property and fulfill the plans and ambitions of the late Lord Altamont Jeremy Browne, the 11th Marquess of Sligo, to develop the estate as an integrated tourist attraction. The new oweners of the properites is local business family the Hughes who own Hotel Westport and Portwest.

Achill based Fianna Fáil councillor Paul McNamara has asked for a progress report on the proposed Signature Discovery Point that was announced for Keem Bay in Achill almost two years ago. Keem Bay was selected as one of a number of Signature Discovery Points along the Wild Atlantic Way and it was proposed that a glass viewing platform overhanging the Atlantic Ocean near the old Coastguard station would be constructed. 

The possibility of a 'significant' portion of the Mary Robinson Archive being housed in Ballina is something that is still alive, and if there is support for that it is something Mayo County Council will discuss with NUIG, the chief executive of Mayo County Council said this week.

The soon to be launched National Planning Framework will leave the region north of a line from Galway to Dublin a "glorified wildlife park" it was said this week. 

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.