1996/99
For up to date news visit the Connaught Telegraph website.
Snippets
13 May 1998
Foxford oppose Eircell mast
RESIDENTS of a scenic area overlooking the River Moy at Clongee, Foxford are objecting to an application for planning permission for an Eircell phone mast on environmental grounds.
The proposed mast will be at the heart of A scenic location along one of the country's best walking routes, the Foxford way'.
At a meeting on Monday night residents were told that the actual land for which the controversial mast is proposed was originally bought by Coillte for forestry purposes.
Kiltimagh jobs scheme
The IRD Kiltimagh Community Employment Scheme will commence on Monday next. Participants from the following areas are invited:
Kiltimagh, Bohola, Kilkelly and Swinford.
For details contact 094-81494 of Castlebar FAS Office on 094-22011.
Council plan street booze-ban for Westport
By Deirdre Kelly
Moves are being made to ban the consumption of alcohol on the streets of Westport.
Proposals to introduce draft bye-laws to make drinking on the streets illegal have been submitted by Westport-based Superintendent Frank Gunter to the local Urban Council.
While there was a positive response to the proposal by members of the local authority, the issue was adjourned to next month's meeting for consideration and for members to study similar bye-laws from other towns.
If the bye-laws are adopted drinking on the streets will be an offence except in areas outside hotels, licenced restaurants and pubs where seating is provided.
Offenders could face fines not exceeding £500.
A letter from Superintendent Gunter said the measures would greatly assist Gardai in controlling public order and give them additional powers to curb drinking in the streets.
Millennium challenge for Westport clock
By Deirdre Kelly
WESTPORT Town Clock is to get a face-lift and become the main focus of the change in time to the new millennium.
Local architects, artists and members of the public are to be invited to submit refurbishment plans for the Clock as time ticks to the turn of the century.
The proposal for the clock's repair were put before Westport Urban Council by Mr. Declan Dever and received the unanimous backing of the members.
Built in 1943, Mr. Dever said apart from a few attempts get it going nothing had been done with the clock since. It should be repaired and given a face-lift to coincide with the millennium.
People were looking for ways to celebrate bringing in the new millennium and "what better way to mark the change of time than with a clock," he said.
There had been negative attitudes to its appearance in the past but this could become more positive if the skilled people of the town were invited to submit entries to a competition giving it a major overhaul.
Council chairman, Ms. Margaret Adams, seconded the motion, adding she was never in favour of having the clock removed. There was enough expertise in the town to come up with a plan to enhance it.
Mr. Sean Staunton said the competition should be open to the public, adding he hoped the clock would get going as it had not been at the right time for as long as he could remember.
Deputy Michael Ring said its importance in Westport was in the past noted by a local reporter who wrote a weekly column from Westport entitled 'Under the Clock' in the Connaught Telegraph.
SKY 'ignoramus' has Ballina councillors fuming over 'idiots guide'
By John Melvin
BALLINA URBAN Councillors are seeing red over the way the town has been described in a travel guide book. According to chairman, Terry McCole, the publication is not a travellers guide but 'an idiots guide' written by some 'spacer'.
The following is the quotation taken from the guide book which was published in 1996.
'Ballina, a typical Connaught town, with a shabbiness and conservatism rooted in long deprivation and isolation-' 'There is little to see in the town except the hungry face of County Mayo' an unlikely environment for one of its most famous inhabitants - Mary Robinson, the liberal, pro-feminist President of Ireland'
The guide is used extensively by Sky TV for their travel programme and it retails all over the world for around £10.
But according to Mr McCole the writing is destructive and he seriously questions whether the author ever visited the town.
Mr Cole said it was an insult to the people of Ballina which was a thriving town and a town which attracts thousands of tourists each year to the famous River Moy.
What has irked him even more is the fact that a Bord Failte source is thanked for their help in compiling some of the material in the book.
"I will be demanding form Board Failte that they give us all the relevant information they have about Ballina and the north Mayo region", he said.
Senator Ernie Caffrey said it was an insult to the people of Ballina that such a thing should be written about a town which had progressed in leaps and bounds. "It is the work of an ignoramus", said the Senator.
Newsagent is making Headlines
CONGRATULATIONS to Headlines Newsagency, Shopping centre, Castlebar who have qualified for the 1998 Newsagent of the Year Award. Headlines won the prestigious national award last year.
The final takes place in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin on Tuesday night.
Connaught Telegraph - News & Sport - May 1998
