Connacht Tribune
Gold in sheds and sweets!
Two Galway entrepreneurs – one designing labour-saving farm sheds and the other looking after the sweet tooth – have taken home top awards in the Irish Business Design Challenge 2021.
Gráinne Mullins of Grá Chocolates in Loughrea won the micro business category, while Paul Lyons of Bo Steel in Athenry was named a joint winner of the small/medium category with Dublin company, Aqueduct – The Well Water.
The Twelve Hotel in Bearna was also named a runner-up in the small/medium category.
The win for Grá Chocolates was all the sweeter, given that it was born out of adversity – after founder Gráinne Mullins hit an early hurdle when the fragile stock was becoming damaged in transit.
That left Gráinne with a packaging redesign challenge that would not only protect her hand-painted chocolates to be shipped all across Europe and retain their integrity, but one that would also showcase the unique offering of the product itself.
Gráinne Mullins was drawn to IBDC precisely because of its design focus, a discipline close to her heart.
“It’s been very important to me from the very beginning to tell a story through a beautiful medium and that’s all done through the design,” she said.
“Sometimes you don’t even see the detail in design we’ve put in, it can be so subtle. Entering gave us a chance to reflect on what we have done to date – all the hard work that we’ve put in to make our product what it is, but winning this award gives us a great boost.
“It shows all that hard work is really paying off. We’re moving to a new location very soon, so we’re expanding, and the prize money will help us build the most perfect little chocolate factory possible,” she said.
Bo Steel Ltd is an agricultural engineering company founded by Paul Lyons in Athenry. The company specializes in cattle handling solutions, more specifically niche products that help enhance safety on Irish farms and improve both the lives of farmers and farm animals alike.
Addressing the global shortage of farm labour and the concept of building a “one person operation”, Lyons and his team designed and created a suckler beef winter housing shed.
Instead of outsourcing all the elements, Bo Steel integrated each of them into a customer-driven solution that makes it easier and more efficient for single handling, with a clear focus on safety – both for farmer and livestock.
“It’s been a twelve-year slog to get the business off the ground,” admitted Paul.
“I started it in 2007, just as things started to go south and any of the products we have, they took every ounce of energy and money we had at the time to get them off the ground, so winning this competition is just incredible recognition that we have a top-class product and methodology.
“I’ve already earmarked the prize money for more R&D as the one-person farm is a concept everyone was striving for, but what we’ve done has achieved it,” he said.
First launched in 2020, the Irish Business Design Challenge supports companies applying clever design solutions to meet their customer’s needs. The competition was open to entries from micro, small and medium Irish enterprises.
Run by Design & Crafts Council Ireland in partnership with Enterprise Ireland, the Local Enterprise Offices and supported by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the competition showcases the ‘business heroes’ in the MSME sector.
The strongest entries demonstrated how they have created meaningful and innovative solutions. The businesses that received the most public votes were then shortlisted, before being evaluated by the judges, Charlotte Barker, Daryl Regan, Tommy Murray and Breda Fox, who selected the overall winners.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
