1996/99
For up to date news visit the Connaught Telegraph website.
Snippets
27 May 1998
Mayo Gardai raise £29,000
GARDAI in the Mayo Division have put their hands in their pockets to help fund local charities.
During 1997, which marked the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Force, the officers contributed £1 per week which has realised £10,000.
This will be divided between the Mayo Cat Scan, Mayo-Roscommon Hospice and the North West Hospice.
The cheques will be handed over at a reception in the Welcome Inn Hotel, Castlebar on Thursday next (June 4).
At the same time a cheque for £1,000 will be presented to the Michael Heffernan Trust Fund. Michael, from Ballina, a member of the Grainne Uaile sub-aqua club lost his life in an attempt to rescue a group of people trapped in a cave off the North Mayo coast last October.
Other fund raising events were run by the Gardai last year a charity Golf Am-Am in Belmullet which raised £12,000 for the McCabe Fellowship and £6,000 from a charity concert in Castlebar saw Western Care and Rehab get £3,000 each.
£38m prison contract
HENRY O'Rourke Ltd, Ballinrobe Road, Castlebar has been awarded the contract to design, build and finance the new 400 cell prison at Portlaoise by the Department of Justice for the tender sum of £38m.
Work on the prison will start immediately and will be completed in eighteen months.
Disabled art Exhibition
AN exhibition of art by "Foyer Majouraou", a young disabled group from France will go on show at the AIB Bank, Castlebar from June 2.
The exhibition will be officially opened on Tuesday evening next at 7p.m.by Mary Healy from Swinford. All are welcome to attend.
Charlestown developments
A NEW library and health centre is to be provided in Charlestown, Deputy Jim Higgins has been informed.
The library project had been delayed because the premises is owned by the Western Health Board. But now that the Board has decided to construct a new health centre it will enable Mayo County Council to acquire the old building and develop a new branch library.
The building of the new health centre is expected to commence before the end of the year.
Burrishoole Walking Festival
The Burrishoole Walking Festival takes place this weekend with registration on Saturday at 10.30a.m. and the walks over various distances commencing an hour later.
On Sunday the walks get underway at 12 noon and on Monday the participants will walk to the Mass Rock 1,000 feet overlooking Clew bay where there will be concelebrated Mass at 2.30p.m. many social events are organised each evening.
Sour note as pipers kilts took flight
By Tom Gillespie
A BAGPIPE band hit a sour note when their kilts were stolen while returning from a gig.
Members of the Mulranny pipe band were waiting to be picked up in Castlebar after returning from Ennistymon, Co. Clare, when the uniforms went missing.
One of the group had been left in charge of the ten kilts but a call of nature took him away for a few moments. On his return he was shocked to find they had disappeared.
The local Gardai were quick on the scene and within an hour had recovered the items.
Band chairman Tom Doherty said it would have cost them over £1,000 to replace the kilts had they not been found.
"The Gardai did a great job. We would have been rightly stuck had we not got the kilts back", he declared.
Little goodwill as Christmas tree project wilts
By Tom Shiel
UP TO forty investors from Mayo stand collectively to lose possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds following the liquidation of Christmas tree firm, European Forestry Growers (EFG).
The Mayo farmers are among 500 from around the country who paid over £6 million in total to EFG for Christmas trees which they planted during the past eight years.
Now the angry investors, who have been told there is no market for their trees, are pressurising the company's liquidator, Aidan O'Connell of accountants Deloitte & Touche to pursue legal action against the company for "reckless trading".
And the Irish Farmers' Association is urging the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Mary Harney to intervene.
IFA Regional Organiser, Roy O'Brien said he had calls from investors all over the west who were concerned about the situation. There were roughly 40 growers in Mayo, some in the Crossmolina and Ballyglass area, Mr. O'Brien said with a similar number in Co. Galway.
"Some growers were told that if they invested £2,000 in trees they would receive up to £8,000 in three years but the markets never materialised", Mr. O'Brien said.
Meanwhile, the directors of EFG, brothers Conor and Leo Mohan have attributed the fall of the company to the "collapse" of the British market and to adverse publicity. However, experts claim the British trade wasn't all bad last season.
Stink over Kilkelly compost plan
By Tom Shiel
REVISED proposals for a mushroom compost manufacturing plant near Kilkelly, County Mayo have met with renewed opposition from local residents who claim the proposal would "stink them out".
However, the promoters of the controversial claims there will be no smell as they plan to cover over the disused sandpit where components such as chicken manure and straw will be mixed.
Local residents in the Shammer/Knockbrack area have made a submission to the Planning Office of Mayo County Council on such points as proximity of local dwellings; noise levels; traffic movement, water consumption and odour control.
The residents claim that in no way can the smell from mushroom composting be described as "a mild agricultural type odour" as described by Forbairt.
"This is a blatant distortion of the truth", the letter to the Council states. "The smell from mushroom compost is in no way comparable to ordinary agricultural odours such as slurry and manure. The odour produced from mushroom composting has a stink all of its own".
The objectors claim poultry manure, because of its high protein content, released "highly nauseating odours" when it undergoes bacterial decomposition. Members of the Shammer/Knockbrack group also highlight the proximity of the project to Knock Airport. They have travelled to Wexford to investigate the impact of similar type enterprises on the environment there.
