Letter to the editor: What if we didn't go home to Mayo for Christmas?

Or what if we had more of a choice

Earlier this week I was reading a piece by Caoimhin Rowland in The Connaught Telegraph titled “Where is Mayo’s promised metropolis gone?”

It lamented the lack of ambition and urgency regarding the urban development of Castlebar/Westport and Mayo in general.

I thought I would offer my two cents about why I feel that people should care more about it.

I am a 28-year-old Castlebar man who has lived away for the last decade since finishing in St Gerald’s College in 2015.

For the last decade I have been coming home for Christmas (outside of the Covid Year). To tell you the truth, I really don’t want to any more.

In recent years I have been living and working as an accountant in Dublin, and this time of year is dominated with coming home for Christmas.

Having spent the week or three procuring Christmas presents for friends and family they are packed into a suitcase and lugged onto the train at Heuston Station. Like many Castlebar and Mayo diaspora living outside of the Yew Tree County.

But I pose the question: Why we do have to?

The real consequence of the paltry attempts at urban planning at a government level is that several reasonably common/accessible professions are no longer viable if you want to live in the west of Ireland (excluding Galway City).

Especially if you are at the beginning of your career.

Actions or lack thereof have consequences. The most significant consequence is that since the Recession that dominated the early 2010s, rural to urban migration has increased exponentially, left totally unchecked at a government level.

I do have sympathy for those at the wheel.

Since the Famine in the mid 19th century until the last 35 years the Irish population had been either decreasing or staying around its existing level.

As a result, there was never a significant need for infrastructure at an aggressive level to scale with an increasing population.

Slow and steady was always enough but it simply isn’t anymore.

There has been a significant increase in population as well. For those who posit that there isn’t any room in Ireland should note that we are 80% larger than the Netherlands by land mass and have a third of the population.

This is purely a policy and building issue.

One of the saddest parts of Christmas is leaving the home town again for Dublin.

Between December 13 and December 31 the town is jammed.

Pubs are full, shops are busy during the day and you can’t cross the road without meeting somebody you know that you inevitably haven’t seen since the Christmas before.

For this one week period the towns of Ireland turn into a eutopia for social activity.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

What if Castlebar (Westport/Ballina/Belmullet etc) had the infrastructure and investment to support more jobs in terms of raw number and variety?

As a Mayo expat, the thing that brings me the most grief is the thought that the unique sub cultures of individual towns are being lost in real time.

In a GAA context it is clear that this movement of people is ravaging the junior club scene especially.

Whilst the Kilmeena win of the All-Ireland Junior title a few years ago was an incredible achievement, it was alarming to hear that they did some of their training in Athlone/Roscommon to accommodate the majority of the squad who live outside the county.

Even the signs at rural underage clubs are bleak.

At some age groups Islandeady and Burrishoole have amalgamated, if this becomes a regular occurrence then you would assume that at the adult age group the same will happen.

In Dublin the issue of there not being enough GAA clubs is well documented (especially in the Hurling Development Committee) whereas outside the boundary of the M50 there are simply too many.

How this translates to Mayo ending the long wait I’d prefer rather not offer an opinion.

There are green shoots though, it isn’t all doom and gloom. With the expansion of the former GMIT into the ATU network and beginning to offer a broader range of courses it means that commuting from home to college is more viable.

This could stem the tide out of the county, from a circular economy point of view this can only be a good thing for the locality.

Another critical development could be the newly planned train line from Mayo to Galway.

I’ve always maintained that if this project was done correctly (without too many line switches) students could viably commute from Mayo to NUIG or Galway generally daily.

The key factor in the above point is that you have to keep people here if you want them to live there.

This is because the prospect and practicality of coming back once you have left is incredibly difficult.

Of course, the world is a large place and many who leave (especially to Canada and Australia) go willingly in search of adventure but these people deserve a chance to be able to come back without experiencing a substantial shock to their quality of life when they come home. Nouveau Culture Shock.

Whether we like it or not, Yoga, Pilates, Matcha, Artisanal Coffee and Brunch are a way of life of the under 30’s in a world where alcohol consumptions levels are down and the conditions don’t exist for these businesses in the urban centers of Mayo.

The businesses of this nature that exist do so in spite of the current conditions. When I discuss with my peers who long for home why they don’t plan on coming back they site two reasons: There isn’t anything to do and even if there was there isn’t a way to get there.

Until the conditions and climate of housing, business, third level education and public transport are addressed aggressively both politically and fiscally then the euphoria of Christmas Week in towns like Castlebar across the country will remain an impossible dream.

If you consider the likely cost of the Dublin Metro Link, you could take a third of that amount and revolutionize the North West to South West.

You may not even need the Metro Link because the City’s transport wouldn’t be stretched past breaking point due to less demand.

It’s cruel that we get to experience a busy town for such a short amount of time knowing that in another world, as a generation, we would not have to come home en masse for Christmas. We’d already be there.

When you consider the damage done to these towns over the last 30 years, you feel a premature sense of loss at the thought of what it will look like in 30 years time.

Yours,

Michael Loftus, The Brambles, Pontoon Road, Castlebar.