Ballyhaunis Blog

Broadband is available in many Mayo towns - Castlebar, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis to name a few - but there are still plently of rural dwellers outside the towns who can’t get broadband via the phone line. Either they are too far from the exchange - or the lines just aren’t good enough. There is an alternative - it is more expensive - but if you are a heavy internet user it could be worth it.
Digiweb Satellite Broadband starts at around 99 euro a month compared to about 40 euro for “normal ” broadband. There is an installation fee and equipment fee which might seem high - but if you look at it as a long term investment it is not too bad. You could wait for the government to get rural broadband working - but that could be a long time…

The Monsoon Indian Kebab House recently opened on Clare St Ballyhaunis. It is located beside the Monsoon nightclub and serves a range of Indian dishes - Tandoori , Byriani, Balti, Jalfrezi, Vindaloo, Bhuna, Korma etc - Chicken, Lamb, Prawn all available. Prices from €7.00 - rice/nan extra. With all the Pakistanis in Ballyhaunis - it is nice to see some cooking from that part of the world in the town.
Free Home delivery within 4km
Opens 4pm each day
Tel 094 9631511

It’s a pity they don’t have a website - hen you could see the full menu .

Flyglobespan are now doing flights from Knock Airport to JFK New York and to Boston MA
I was interested to see how cheap the flights were - so a random date in July was picked and compared with other options from Dublin and Shannon using low cost flight search engine Wegolo
On May 30th I selected flights departing Knock on 12 July Returning 19 July

The Budget No Frills Total Cost on Flyglobespan is €367 euro
Premium Tickets are €392 euro this - includes meal ,advance seat selection ,• Priority check-in , Complimentary drinks , In-flight entertainment.
There is aCredit Card fee 2% and debit card of 2 euro

At wegolo - flying from From Shannon to JFK on the same dates - the price is €615 Euro
From Dublin to JFK the cost is €679 euro (Both with Aer Lingus)
All of these prices are of course likely to change on a daily basis.

Nw this is only a comparison of prices on a specific date - but if these are anything to go by people will be driving down from Dublin to get these prices. A saving of over 200 euro is not to be ignored. Also - travellers from the USA should consider flying to Knock instead of Dublin or Shannon if the prices are this good all the time.

A 30 hour non-stop music session over the June Bank holiday weekend is being held in the Village Inn, Aghamore near Ballyhaunis County Mayo . Artists to appear are members of Dervish, Sean Smyth of Lunasa , Joe Burke , Sean Keane , Cora and Breda Smyth, Grainne Hambly. There will be music for all tastes - from traditional to Jazz, Rock to Country and Big Band sounds.
Dozens of local musicians will also perform. The Bank Holiday music marathon will commence at 12 noon on Sunday the 3rd June and conclude on Monday 4th at 6pm with a rousing traditional session with 20 fiddlers . No entry fee - but donations of all sizes are welcome. All money raised is in aid of the Street Children of Calcutta Last year’s event raised over €25,000 for the Hope Foundation.

The man with probably the worst election poster came 11th in his constituency with a total vote after transfers of 1252 - beating a Labour candidate a Green pary candidate and 3 other independents. Mind you - one of those was that nutter Noel O’Gara - so that doesn’t count (surprisingly Noel O Gara got 45 first preference votes - he is the man who wants planning rules abolished so that we can all build whatever we want on land we own.)
See that bad poster here:

http://ballyhaunis.blogs.ie/2007/05/04/election-posters-john-bracken/

These are the full details of the count in the election for the Mayo constituency 2007.
Local TD John Carty lost his seat - mainly because of John O Mahoney’s large vote in the area. Overall the FG gains nationally were not enough to bring about a change of government .

Last remaining seats in Galway West have been filled by PD candidate Noel Grealish and FF’s Frank Fahy.
The result means that there is no change in the constituency’s representation after Eamon O Cuiv(FF), Michael D Higgins (Labour) and Padraic McCormack(FG) took the first three.
What is wrong with the people of Galway? They can’t drink the water before boiling - and it has been like that for months - and they keep all their Tds in power. Why no protest vote? Was there any alternative? Do people care or are they stupid?

Overall - nationwide - if the predictions on the final figures become reality, Fianna Fail will end up with 78 seats. Fine Gael will get 51, Labour 20 or 21, the Greens 6; Sinn Fein 3 or 4, the PDs 2 and the Independents 5.

This final tally of figures opens up a number of potential combinations in order to make up the 83 seats required for a majority in the next Dail.

That means Fianna Fail could form a government with the support of two PDs, two Independents and the expected support of the Ceann Comhairle, who in this case is Fianna Fail TD Rory O’Hanlon.

Alternatively Fianna Fail could simply line up with Labour where the combined total of seats would be 98 or 99.

On the other hand Fianna Fail could enter government with the six Green Party deputies, bringing the total to 84.

A Ballyhaunis native is presenting a popular Irish radio show on BBC called Citizen Manchester Irish
Evelyn Grealy - who was part of the Parlour team - is at the helm of the new show. Evelyn - who hails from Ballyhaunis in Co. Mayo - couldn’t contain her delight at fronting the new show for the Irish in Manchester.

She said: “I am absolutely thrilled that we are back to full strength again. We’ve been inundated with good wishes from listeners and everyone seems to be delighted with the decision. The BBC has been fantastic in implementing these new changes and I’m thrilled to be here. ”

The original Parlour show interviewed the great and the good in the Irish community over its 22-year lifespan - including President of Ireland Mary McAleese and singer Daniel O’Donnell.

And it seems Citizen Manchester Irish is following in good stead having secured one of the only radio interviews with Lord Of The Dance star Michael Flatley.

On the style of the new show Evelyn said: “We are urging listeners to tell us what they want to hear on air. We’re changing the format so that there’s more audience participation and more phone-ins. We play everything from traditional to U2 - everything with an Irish theme. A lot of our listeners aren’t even Irish but there’s something for everyone on our show. We’d like to hear from you, the listeners.”

* Citizen Manchester Irish is available on 95.1fm dab & digital radio from 910pm every Monday. Evelyn can be contacted at eve.grealy@bbc.co.uk

I will vote for two parties led by Mayo men tomorrow - not because they are from Mayo - but because together - Labour and Fine Gael can hopefully create a new government in Ireland that will help reverse some of the Fianna Fail policies that have helped the rich and not the ordinary people of Ireland. In my experience Fianna Fail elected members have a problem with telling the truth - some of them anyway - the leader included. Ten years is enough. Vote Labour and Fine Gael tomorrow .

I noticed that the ads for Beverly Flynn in the local press have the words Vote For Flynn - in large writing - with the letter F in “For” and “Flynn” lined up vertically and in bold print so they stand out - showing FF clearly. What a con - I suppose there are still some people who will think she is Fianna Fail and vote for her. She will probably vote for Fianna Fail in the Dail if she gets in - they probaly only expelled her so they would be seen to do the right thing.