Sunday, January 09, 2011

Priest praises community for buying mart

One of Ireland's leading social commentators has praised a local community for taking the initiative and keeping a local mart open.
 
Sociologist Fr Harry Bohan, parish priest of Sixmilebridge in County Clare, said that the way the local community in Sixmilebridge has bought a local mart and hope to reopen it to provide employment for the local community should be held up as a microcosm of what rural community's need to do to get out of the recession and secure their futures. 

Last year Golden Vale Marts was forced to close the Sixmilebridge Mart. 

However a local community now looks set to purchase the mart again for €50,000 and get it up and running over the next couple of months.  

Speaking this week Fr Bohan said, “The important thing about this development is that we are moving into an era where local communities have to take responsibility for themselves and their futures.  This is a prime example of that concept.”  

“The farming people and the wider community got involved in this and the bottom line is that they were determined to make sure it was going to be purchased. This is a great victory for the community because they kept at it when others might have thrown in the towel.” 

The community is now hoping to put a viable business plan in place to ensure the marts future.

SIC: CIN/IE