Rory Breslin’s Fair Day sculpture in the centre of Ballyhaunis town harks back to an era that saw farming and food central to the establishment of the Co Mayo town. The word ‘central’ probably underplays the importance of food and farming to Ballyhaunis as a business unit, as a town that is built on food and farming in it’s hinterland.
The sculpture depicts the farmer bringing the calf to the town for sale, the haggle with the calf dealer, the celebratory drink once the deal is done, and then the spending of the money on supplies. In so many ways so much has changed, yet in others so little has changed. The same deal still goes on to this very day in Ballyhaunis, but, in a very different way.
Now Aurivo has a dedicated mart business in the west of Ireland that uses MartBids technology to allow farmers buy and sell cattle online. Aurivo Co-op has a dedicated Homeland store in Ballyhaunis that allows farmers get supplies in an organised one-stop shop. If they can’t get it in Aurivo, they can go to the purpose-built Delaney Hardware store and builders providers on the ring road that runs around the town. Once they have some of the money spent on feed, gates and animal health products, they go to Eddie Murphy’s and they can get workwear, or to Finn’s, to Forde’s or to Cathal Phillips.
Forde's on the corner in Ballyhaunis.
I was in Ballyhaunis in August and a key part of the Forde business is school uniforms. Needless to say, it was hard work trying to get two minutes with owner Tom Forde. Tom is crystal clear on the importance of farming and food to the development of the town. “The importance of food and farming to this town and community was instilled with me since I was knee high. To be quite honest with you, our business wouldn’t survive without farming. To sum it all up in one sentence – give the farmers a few euro and we are all better off. It they have it, they spend it, and I will fight on behalf of that all day,” he said. Tom is current president of the town Chamber of Commerce.
Suckler and sheep farmers around Ballyhaunis are farming to fill the food factories and also often are working part-time in the local factories. Tom is clear on the importance. “We call ourselves in Ballyhaunis an agri hub. Look at the industries in the hinterland – Grasscare, Major, McHale, Agri-Spread. They are all manufacturing and creating employment. Look at the food factories, Dawn Meats, Western Brand – huge employers. The bottom line is the main key industries that the Government are looking for the sustainability of our domestic growth are food and farming and the resources need to be poured into those areas and we do them well around here. You are looking at over 2,500 food and farming related jobs in this town. That was 2,000 a few years ago. There will be 3,000 before you know it because of the growth in those sectors.”
Eddie Murphy Menswear are a big attraction in Ballyhaunis.
Dawn Meats and Western Brand are two anchor employers in Ballyhaunis. Between them they employ upwards of 1,500 people directly and many more indirectly because of transport, services, etc that work with the factories. They also allow farming to continue on the relatively small and fragmented holdings in these parts, because, many of the local farmers are working with these companies and are also farming part time.
The same is true for the machinery hub, again located on the outskirts of Ballyhaunis. World-renowned farm machinery is manufactured and exported from the west of Ireland. Key players such as McHale, Major, Cashels Engineering, EPS and Grasscare all employ local farmers part-time. The symbiotic relationship between sheep and cattle and working part-time works for this part of Ireland. Families make it work because if the principal farmer is busy working off-farm other family members are called in and help out on the farm and it creates this evolution of ownership and understanding of farming and food.
Ballyhaunis is well located with a wide network of roads and a rail link with the airport not far away.
This then spills over into other services required by families. Ballyhaunis has this in abundance. You can go to Curley’s, Moran’s, the local Costcutter Gem Newsagents, and Nolan’s SuperValu for everyday spending and then Keane’s kitchens and Heneghan’s for furniture.
This is the very real spin-off into the local community of farming and what it does for towns like Ballyhaunis. But agribusinesses aren’t the only show in town. There are companies like B-Pod, which makes bespoke prefabricated bathroom pods that are dropped into many of the high-rise apartments in Dublin City centre.
What I picked up is the frustration for the likes of Tom Forde and other business owners in that they work day and night to make a business work, but their business is a spin-off of another business which is food and farming that is getting a media hammering.
They then hear and see Government policy attack Irish food and farm businesses to reduce stock on farms that are the bread and butter of farmer and the town’s livelihood and the reason they exist.
They turn the dial or turn the page and they hear what’s happening in South America or China that maybe are not moving in the same sustainable circles as the EU. They then wonder about the attack on an Irish food business on which their business is very dependent on and ask the question why Irish agriculture needs to adhere to such red tape and regulation that is slowly strangling a rural locality and not allowing it to breathe.
Businesses in Ballyhaunis are very clear – food and farming puts Ballyhaunis on the map. Without the suckler and sheep sector, the main street would be very quiet.
Rory Breslin’s Fair Day sculpture in the centre of Ballyhaunis town harks back to an era that saw farming and food central to the establishment of the Co Mayo town. The word ‘central’ probably underplays the importance of food and farming to Ballyhaunis as a business unit, as a town that is built on food and farming in it’s hinterland.
The sculpture depicts the farmer bringing the calf to the town for sale, the haggle with the calf dealer, the celebratory drink once the deal is done, and then the spending of the money on supplies. In so many ways so much has changed, yet in others so little has changed. The same deal still goes on to this very day in Ballyhaunis, but, in a very different way.
Now Aurivo has a dedicated mart business in the west of Ireland that uses MartBids technology to allow farmers buy and sell cattle online. Aurivo Co-op has a dedicated Homeland store in Ballyhaunis that allows farmers get supplies in an organised one-stop shop. If they can’t get it in Aurivo, they can go to the purpose-built Delaney Hardware store and builders providers on the ring road that runs around the town. Once they have some of the money spent on feed, gates and animal health products, they go to Eddie Murphy’s and they can get workwear, or to Finn’s, to Forde’s or to Cathal Phillips.
Forde's on the corner in Ballyhaunis.
I was in Ballyhaunis in August and a key part of the Forde business is school uniforms. Needless to say, it was hard work trying to get two minutes with owner Tom Forde. Tom is crystal clear on the importance of farming and food to the development of the town. “The importance of food and farming to this town and community was instilled with me since I was knee high. To be quite honest with you, our business wouldn’t survive without farming. To sum it all up in one sentence – give the farmers a few euro and we are all better off. It they have it, they spend it, and I will fight on behalf of that all day,” he said. Tom is current president of the town Chamber of Commerce.
Suckler and sheep farmers around Ballyhaunis are farming to fill the food factories and also often are working part-time in the local factories. Tom is clear on the importance. “We call ourselves in Ballyhaunis an agri hub. Look at the industries in the hinterland – Grasscare, Major, McHale, Agri-Spread. They are all manufacturing and creating employment. Look at the food factories, Dawn Meats, Western Brand – huge employers. The bottom line is the main key industries that the Government are looking for the sustainability of our domestic growth are food and farming and the resources need to be poured into those areas and we do them well around here. You are looking at over 2,500 food and farming related jobs in this town. That was 2,000 a few years ago. There will be 3,000 before you know it because of the growth in those sectors.”
Eddie Murphy Menswear are a big attraction in Ballyhaunis.
Dawn Meats and Western Brand are two anchor employers in Ballyhaunis. Between them they employ upwards of 1,500 people directly and many more indirectly because of transport, services, etc that work with the factories. They also allow farming to continue on the relatively small and fragmented holdings in these parts, because, many of the local farmers are working with these companies and are also farming part time.
The same is true for the machinery hub, again located on the outskirts of Ballyhaunis. World-renowned farm machinery is manufactured and exported from the west of Ireland. Key players such as McHale, Major, Cashels Engineering, EPS and Grasscare all employ local farmers part-time. The symbiotic relationship between sheep and cattle and working part-time works for this part of Ireland. Families make it work because if the principal farmer is busy working off-farm other family members are called in and help out on the farm and it creates this evolution of ownership and understanding of farming and food.
Ballyhaunis is well located with a wide network of roads and a rail link with the airport not far away.
This then spills over into other services required by families. Ballyhaunis has this in abundance. You can go to Curley’s, Moran’s, the local Costcutter Gem Newsagents, and Nolan’s SuperValu for everyday spending and then Keane’s kitchens and Heneghan’s for furniture.
This is the very real spin-off into the local community of farming and what it does for towns like Ballyhaunis. But agribusinesses aren’t the only show in town. There are companies like B-Pod, which makes bespoke prefabricated bathroom pods that are dropped into many of the high-rise apartments in Dublin City centre.
What I picked up is the frustration for the likes of Tom Forde and other business owners in that they work day and night to make a business work, but their business is a spin-off of another business which is food and farming that is getting a media hammering.
They then hear and see Government policy attack Irish food and farm businesses to reduce stock on farms that are the bread and butter of farmer and the town’s livelihood and the reason they exist.
They turn the dial or turn the page and they hear what’s happening in South America or China that maybe are not moving in the same sustainable circles as the EU. They then wonder about the attack on an Irish food business on which their business is very dependent on and ask the question why Irish agriculture needs to adhere to such red tape and regulation that is slowly strangling a rural locality and not allowing it to breathe.
Businesses in Ballyhaunis are very clear – food and farming puts Ballyhaunis on the map. Without the suckler and sheep sector, the main street would be very quiet.
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