BALLINA, County Mayo, good enough for PRESIDENTS Joe Biden, Mary Robinson and big Jack Charlton.
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- Ballina, a town in the north of county Mayo, is situated on the mighty river Moy, which is particularly high as we film, to the amount of rain that’s fallen recently. The Moy leads out to Killala Bay, the estuary of the river, and on into the Atlantic Ocean. Looking at this river, it’s probably not surprising that salmon fishing is an important thing here. In fact there’s a salmon fishing festival in July of each year. So if you’re an angler, now you know when to visit. It’s funny but I remember visiting Ballina way back in the early 1990s and one of my recollections was buying a massive whole salmon here and taking it back to Sligo, where we were staying, and cutting it into stakes.
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The town has a population of over 10,500 people, which might seem strange as it seems particularly quiet tonight. It’s a Thursday night. It has the quaint charm of other west of Ireland towns, though I don’t think any of the picturesque beauty of the likes of Westport. But that’s understandable - while this is certainly a tourist destination, it wouldn’t compare with towns like Sligo or Westport in terms of being a tourist attraction. But, many of these less developed towns (for want of a better term) are great places for tourists to see the real west of Ireland, away from the glamour of the tourist trail.
It’s a town, like many towns in the west that suffered very badly during the Great Famine. People in Ballina’s rural surroundings depended heavily on the potato in the mid 19th Century. In 1846 when the potato blight struck, it was a disaster. Starvation was rife and Ballina hosted a workhouse which served whole northwestern coast of County Mayo. You can imagine, I’m sure, that these workhouses were not the kind of place that you’d enter except as a last resort, but things were so bad here that huge amounts of starving peasants requested admission. By 1847 almost 90 people were dying of fever a week.
Perhaps if you’re watching from England, Canada or the US, your ancestors may well have left here in desperation at that time, searching for a new life for themselves. And of course the irony is now we have people from other parts of the world arriving here, for exactly the same reason.
And then I came across Dillon’s Historic Courtyard. And what a charming place this is, and there were a couple of nice looking restaurants here too, one of which I had dinner in. It was the usual very generous plate, of, in this case, very nice seafood linguine. So, Ballina caters well for visitors and I really recommend this town if you’re visiting the west.
We see an area that is destined to become the new Ballina Innovation Quarter. It’s the old historic Market Square Barracks and this place has massive potential to transform the town.
Now Ballina has had a few very distinguished residents, namely former Irish President Mary Robinson and the late Rep of Ireland football manager Jack Charlton (who practically had the status of an Irish President at one point).
…and of course the great great grandfather of the 46th President of the United States. And of course Joe Biden visited the town of Ballina twice most recently in 2023.
So Ballina - the home of Presidents of one sort or another!
They are the cause of the 2nd plantation
Thanks Catherine.
Nice town Ballina I have never been in this town. Thank your for give me the idea!!
It’s waiting for you Patricia!
Thats a nice wee town. We have a Ballina here in NSW! Im only 40 minutes up the road from it. Its right on the coast with the Richmond River flowing through and out to the vast Pacific Ocean. My wife and I take walks along the break water to watch Hump Back Whale's come right up to the end of the wall!! I love the buildings in the Old Town of Ballina, the colours and close streets. Great murals too!
Yes, it’s a lovely wee place, not as busy as some of the more popular western towns, but that’s a good thing I think, esp. in summer.
I must have bumped in to you a few times at this stage around Mayo, I can always spot the look of a Northerner casting a cold eye on life :-). For those whondering where Jackie Charlton went for a Pint after a days fishing in the Moy, it was V.J Dohertys. An Bolg Buí next door has a surprising amount of Leeds United fans due to Emmigration to Yorkshire from this part of Mayo
Yeah are paths perhaps have crossed, sure it’s a small world.
Did you have any Salmon this time? I believe they are hard to catch and Pacific Salmon are being caught here which may pose a further threat to the Wild Atlantic Salmon who tends to spend his Life off Norway and Greenland before coming back to the Moy
i think there may have been pieces of salmon in my linguini, but otherwise, none this time.
Less of the... I can always spot the look of a Northerner casting a cold eye on life...LOL
ha ha we northerners stick together!
You’ve probably seen more of it than I have, Greg! It was always viewed down here as Shelbyville to our Springfield, only ever went there to play sports. Apparently it’s doing very well these days due to the Coca-Cola and Hollister factories in the vicinity. Say what you want about the US, but the West of Ireland would be a lot worse off without their investment.
Another good video. What about Belmullet
Many thanks, yeah Benmullet would be good, but that would entail lots of exertion probably - mountains and all that!
Was there a few times I also think it’s very like Sligo , maybe it’s the river , the ex president of Ireland mary, her sister Nora was always in our house during the troubles she was best friends with my sister, my father worked with Mary’s father they were both publicans, seems to be a buzzing little town .
Nice place Paul. I had a nice couple of pints there.
Mary seven pensions. Didn't her brother sell the homeplace for a small fortune to the state to keep Mary's paper's in . She seemingly has a lot of paper's.
Wow, that’d be a big filing cabinet of a house! 😂
I liked the video but the music was too intrusive
Glad you liked the video anyway Elaine, thanks for watching.
A nice place, not a part of Ireland I have been to, yet 😁 I prefer the non-tourist orientated places, I like the towns and villages of Ireland just as they are. Of course it is a country, like others, that is constantly changing. I guess that part of Ireland isn’t that far from Northern Ireland? Being I always travelled via Rosslare when visiting, I usefully stayed in the southern counties but always wanted to see the north west part.
It’s probably about two hours away from Enniskillen, maybe slightly more depending on traffic.
I guess Ballina is about a third of the way down on the west coast if you look at it on the map, though it being right out in the west makes it quite a drive from somewhere like Belfast! It’s not so accessible. But part of its charm for us northerners is it’s isolation. It does feel like a bit of an ‘other world’. Not so much now perhaps as it did 30 years ago. But you should treat yourself and visit the west of Ireland, you won’t be disappointed! Fantastic part of Ireland.
Ballina is also not too far away from Knock Airport, from which many regional UK airports have a regular route (Ryanair). It’s also accessible via train from Dublin.
ah, i never thought of that! Knock airport, great idea.
@@nakedireland I loved that about Ireland the places that were more as they were years ago. I first lived I Ireland in 1991, though not for long. I recall back then it feeling quite different to the UK. The main thing that I love about Ireland though is the people, as a cantankerous old git it came as a shock that people were nice 😆 It didn’t rub off on me of course 😝 but I do miss the Irish people. The north west is a part of Ireland I would like to visit, maybe I will make it one day, before I get too old lol.
Can we expect a fawning bullshit homily to an aged warmonger from America? Or a nice piece on rural Ireland without due deference to a warmonger?
Jack Charlton, a warmonger?
Don’t think so, why?