Competition can be good; competition can be healthy; however, in the instance this week of one new music festival cancelling out a more established music festival – this result is not a good one.
By all accounts, Ballina was set to benefit from an injection of up to €1 million in its local economy in the running of the West Fest festival, which organisers announced this week has now been cancelled following the launch of a new major Fáilte Ireland backed Westport Festival of Music and Performing Arts.
While congratulations must be directed towards Westport for winning yet another coup, the loss of the projected West Fest income to the north Mayo town is a big blow and one that local people must be helped reclaim through some other means.
The way forward for Ballina is clearly to apply the winning Westport formula of combining high community spirit with capitalising on local resources.
With its stunning River Moy, Ballina is already a fishing haven. However, the lengths of the river also lend themselves to other recreational activities, such as riverside walking, running, and family picnics. Ballina is also famous for its annual Heritage Day and its Ballina Salmon Festival, while Belleek Woods with its 200 acres and six miles of pathways is a mecca for nature lovers.
The commercial sector is also well served in Ballina with numerous hotels and large multinationals including Hollister and Coca Cola providing invaluable employment in the town. In recent years, the town has also benefited from the Pearse Street regeneration and several new amenity parks, while its reputation as a good shopping destination has also grown, topped off recently by the announcement that a major new Tesco outlet is set to create 100 new jobs.
The good citizens of Ballina must now come together and get their thinking hats on in developing a new theme to bring more people to the town. The music festival is gone, but this does not mean rule out other festival/seminar/conference possibilities. A kickstart event to get the ball rolling could simply be called the Ballina Brainstorm. Simply name the day, get together and work out a community-based progress plan for the future.
Other stories grabbing the headlines this week include the revelation that the Icelandic prime minister is to go on trial for mismanaging the economy, which crashed the banks there. If found guilty, the PM could be sent to jail for three years – an outcome no doubt many would like to see visited on some of our own former Celtic Tiger leaders.
Given the week that is in it, it is also worth noting the Dáil leaders questions session on Wednesday last, when many of our national politicians, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Fianna Fail leader Mícheál Martin and indeed Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, broke out in a rash of Irish language, that almost doubled the usual time slot allotted to this session. Most interesting of all was the spectacle of up to half of the 30 or so TDs in the chamber, immediately reaching for the headsets to hear simultaneous translations of the contributions delivered in their native tongue, from Irish language interpreters. What a hoot. Ní fhaca muid a leithid riamh.
Ar aon nós, comhgairdeachas le gach éinne a rinne iaracht beaganín Gaeilge a labhairt i rith Seachtain na Gaeilge seo. Is léir go bhfuil ár teanga beo laidir fós ar fud na tíre - taobh amuigh den Dáil ar a laghad.
Joan Geraghty
Acting Editor [email protected]
