Connacht Tribune
Hub aims to become magnet to draw diaspora home
A grant of half a million euro for the development of an enterprise hub in An Spidéal will enable Údarás na Gaeltachta to attract the Gaeltacht diaspora back to work and live in Irish-speaking communities in Connemara.
The hub planned for a building behind An Ceardlann craft centre in the seaside village will be dedicated to established enterprises and start-ups working in creative and digital media sectors.
It will be similar to the Portershed innovation hub in Galway City; a co-working space with ‘hot-desks’ for short-term use, desk space for long-term use, offices and other facilities such as conference centres and meetings rooms. One of the big attractions is it will have gigabyte-enabled broadband.
Údarás na Gaeltachta expects the facility to be up and running in 2019 as planning permission has already been obtained, and it has gone through the design stage and some tendering has taken place.
Known as gteic Hub Na Spidéal, it will be the third such facility to be opened by Údarás na Gaeltachta in the space of a year.
Earlier this summer a hub was opened in An Cheathrú Rua, and a hub planned for a building behind the organisation’s headquarters in Na Forbacha is already at an advanced stage and will open this December or early in the New Year.
There will be 25 hot desks at gteic An Spidéal, as well as 10 offices, varying in size from one to four or five desks; two meetings rooms, one with a video conference facility; canteen, tea station, breakout facilities, four phone pods, and three meeting booths. It will cater for between 40 and 50 people.
The gteic planned for Na Forbacha will have 40 hot desks, six offices, four phone pods, two meeting rooms, and canteen facilities. Páid Ó Neachtáin, Public Relations Executive of Údarás na Gaeltachta, told the Connacht Tribune that the Government grant of €548,887 for An Spidéal was “most welcome”.
It represents 75% of the cost of the project – the Údarás Board is expected to approve the remaining 25% funding at a meeting in the New Year.
Mr Ó Neachtáin said there was already an “audio visual cluster” of businesses in An Spidéal and Indreabhán with Ros na Rún, Telegael and TG4.
This new facility in An Spidéal will cater for creative and digital media primarily, to complement those existing businesses, but all and any enterprises will be considered for inclusion in the facility, which will offer low-cost rents and other benefits to clients.
Mr Ó Neachtain said the overall objective of Údarás na Gaeltachta is to ensure that Irish remains the main communal language of the Gaeltacht and is passed on to future generations – this project will enable it to fulfil that function.
“Remote working is one of the things that we will be promoting in gteic Hub Na Spidéal. We want to connect with the Gaeltacht Diaspora, be they people in Dublin or even people who are living in the Gaeltacht but who are working in Parkmore Industrial Estate in the city. If they can do a three-day week working remotely here, that cuts out the traffic and the commute for them, but it will also add to the energy and the life of the Gaeltacht community,” he said.
Barring any ‘unforeseen’ circumstances, the hub will be operational next year, he added. The funding is part of the Government’s €1 billion Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, which aims to breathe new life into Ireland’s smaller towns and villages.
Gaeltacht Minister Seán Kyne, the Galway West Fine Gael TD, welcomed the funding.
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.
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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
