Village fights back for its future

A Galway village that has already seen the closure of its post office and all four of its local shops has now also lost its only curate – forcing residents to travel for weekend Mass for the first time in living memory.

The latest blow to the Connemara village of Cashel proved to be the final straw for local residents, who gathered at a public meeting this week to see how they would face the future.

It’s a battle faced by small towns and village all over the country, but the community in Cashel is determined not to take it lying down.

Because their anger and frustration was also mixed with a determination to hold onto what services they have left – primarily those based at the Community Centre and Credit Union office.

And residents also suggested a number of new ideas to revitalise their village; opening Tea Rooms for tourists was suggested as was a proposal to provide a community field for sport.

But all of that was against a backdrop of cut after cut to local services and facilities.

The local Post Office closed some years ago. There were four shops in the area as recently as the 1990’s; now there are none.

The number of second-level students in Cashel is down to single figures; in times past there were anything up to 30 on the bus to Carna.

In some townlands, over 60% of the population are over 60 years of age.

And now there is no resident priest – a move that has been described as a seminal moment locally.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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