Tag Archives: Fr Pat O’Neill

Tourism businesses are losing “invaluable” free publicity because of the poor phone and broadband coverage in the county. According to John Connolly of Hazel Mountain Chocolate, “Social media can generate such momentum behind a business” and poor internet access prohibits people from “advertising your business for free”. Mr Connolly added that, for many businesses, strong broadband is necessary from a basic operational level. “We have had every provider in the country come to us and no one was able to offer us guaranteed internet. We ended up using satellite broadband, which is just fast enough for the visa machine, if you stand in the right place in room. Last year we went to a cocoa plantation in Costa Rica; they had broadband and phone coverage and they didn’t even have a flushing toilet,” he said. The phone coverage is so bad in some parts of the county that a local priest asked one mobile operator if erecting a mast on …

THE parish of Dysart and Ruan is appealing for sites for use as graveyards, as the existing cemeteries in both villages fill up. Parish priest, Fr Pat O’Neill, said new burial grounds are needed and is calling on people to make land available for them. He said that people can still be buried in family graves but that there are very few new plots available. “I think there is only another grave or two in the graveyard in Ruan, so if there are a few new graves required shortly, we could be in trouble,” he said. Fr O’Neill stated that suitable sites are needed quickly. “Going to Kyle or Drumcliffe, or Corofin is not acceptable. People should be able to be buried in their own place. One of the things I would say is that any old graveyard is not an archaeological site. They are living places. They are for the living and for the dead and I don’t think …