2023 News Review: January

Our opening headline of the new year declared that there was ‘Fury at Robinstown sports centre standstill’. At their most recent county council meeting, councillors had learnt that the Department of Sport and the Gaeltacht had recently rejected a funding bid. Frustrated, Cllr Andrew Duncan reminded the meeting that it was five years since he and Cllr John Shaw had put forward the proposal that a sports centre be provided.

Mullingar canning firm Bevcraft’s success story continued in January, when the firm merged with a Norwegian firm ‘Heldrun’, the leading craft can business in Norway. The merger meant the enlarged group became the number one craft can business in Ireland, the UK and Norway, with significant exports to more than a dozen other countries.

Eighty-nine-year-old Mullingar man Seán Elliffe, a former member of the RAF who served in Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany as well as the UK, shared memories of his youth growing up in Blackhall in Mullingar. He had magical memories of Christmas, and of hard winters when the kids would throw water on the street to turn Meeting House Lane into a skating rink.

Minister Peter Burke, officially opening the new Cedars housing development at Lakepoint, revealed that in the previous 12 months, 160 social houses had been delivered in Westmeath by the County Council, and 170 more were to come on stream over the course of 2023.

In an article discussing whether recent improvements to the public bus services in Westmeath could help reduce the carbon footprint of the county, the Mullingar Sustainable Energy Community concluded that it was important that they did, as 94 per cent of all transport carbon emissions in Ireland stemmed from road transport, while aviation, rail and water-borne navigation accounted for only six per cent.

At Mullingar hospital, manager Kay Slevin stated that the winter to date had been the busiest ever in the hospital’s history, due, in particular, to the high number of older people requiring treatment for Covid, RSV and influenza.

An Garda Síochána reported that an intoxicated motorist stopped by the Delvin Roads Policing Unit in Mullingar town in the previous week was found to be four times over the legal limit.

The saga involving the protest staged by Wilson’s Hospital teacher Enoch Burke rumbled on, and in January, he obtained High Court permission to seek an injunction preventing the school from holding a disciplinary meeting over allegations of misconduct against him.

Met Éireann weatherman Paul Downes, who is from Mullingar, gave an insight into the world of weather forecasting in an interview with journalist Olga Aughey. He also affirmed that climate change was “undeniable”, stating that in his lifetime, he has seen how weather patterns in this country have changed.

In the quarterly litter survey carried out by IBAL (Irish Businesses Against Litter), Mullingar emerged as ninth cleanest town out of the 40 towns and cities surveyed. The adjudicators were pleased to report they found “no seriously littered sites”.

A claim that people “with legitimate concerns about the government’s handling of the refugee crisis” were afraid to voice their opinions in case they were labelled as “racist” or “alarmist” was made by Cllr Denis Leonard. The Labour councillor told the Westmeath Examiner in January that he was “shocked” to learn there were currently 136 Ukrainian refugees and 42 asylum seekers from other countries staying in Harry’s of Kinnegad, despite a commitment from the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) the previous summer that a maximum of 150 people would be housed in the hotel.

Local pharmacist Eamonn Brady, of Whelehans Pharmacy, issued a reassurance to people that they did not need to be overly concerned that they would not get their medicines, despite recent headlines about shortages. Mr Brady said that while some medicines were in short supply, pharmacists work together to make sure patients were not affected.

Comedian and impressionist Conor Moore, in a comprehensive interview with Rodney Farry, said that the highlight of his career to date had been the previous September (2022), when he had played a sold-out gig at Vicar Street.

“It was amazing,” he stated. “After the Monday night in Vicar Street, I remember saying that I didn’t know if I’d ever get a buzz like that again… I just felt that every laugh was louder. Every roar was more raucous. There was something just bigger. There was a chemistry there that night. I remember coming off the stage and thinking ‘wow’. People talk about a comedown for comedians and I always said I never get one, but the next day I was talking to my wife, saying: I’m thinking that could have been my peak.”

At the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, two projects from north Westmeath received awards, as did a number from the southern end of the county. The two successful north Westmeath projects were an ‘Autodoor’ designed by Coláiste Mhuire students Cillian Newcombe from Delvin and Matthew Daugela from Killulagh, and ‘The Name Game: Do people judge you based on your first name rather than on observed ability?’ by Castlepollard Community College students Bartle D’Arcy from Fore and Adam Maxwell from Collinstown.

A warning that if decision-makers in Westmeath didn’t embrace the green agenda, the county risked being seen “as not being part of the solution”, Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment, Eamonn Ryan, warned during a visit to Mullingar.

Definitely not getting left behind when it came to awards were the Grange Community Group and Mullingar Tidy Towns, both of which won all-Ireland titles at the annual Pride of Place awards. Grange won the ‘Best Housing Estate’ award, and Mullingar Tidy Towns won an award for organisations from towns with populations of more than 5000.

There was a great buzz locally following a seminar held in Mullingar on the topic of ‘Inclusive Politics for Westmeath’. The seminar, hosted by Westmeath County Council, aimed to spread the message on how to increase the number and diversity of women in local government.

There was good news for two local businesses: an Irish-owned investment firm acquired a majority stake in the building consultancy ORS, with plans to expand the enterprise and create 150 new jobs, while an academic partnership was agreed between Charter Medical Hospital in Mullingar and the Technical University of the Shannon (TUS) under which nursing students from TUS would undertake training placements at the hospital in Mullingar.

A biodiversity project aimed at attracting and encouraging barn owls to live and thrive in Multyfarnham received the backing of the entire community, from farmers and householders to Tidy Towns and Active Age groups as well as students at St Cremin’s National School. John Carrig of the Barn Owl Project, which was set up in 2019 to help with the conservation of barn owls in Ireland brought ‘Erin’, a barn owl, to the area to encourage the community to keep up their good work.