It’s the tenth year of the Sean MacDiarmada Summer School in Kiltyclogher in county Leitrim.
It’s going from strength to strength and it’s adapted from simply focusing on history alone to broadening the discussions, something the Director of the Summer School Regina Fahey told Claire Mulcahy more about when she went to the Summer School at the Community Centre in Kiltyclogher on Saturday morning:
John Shannon from Gurteen in county Sligo and Diarmuid Geever from Ballaghadereen, students of St Nathy’s College in Ballaghadereen have carried out research on the subject of regional development under the guidance of their teacher Martin Daly as part of the Border, Midlands and West Youth Coalition.
They attended the Summer School over the weekend and they took some time to speak to Claire Mulcahy about their project and their own hopes for their future in the West of Ireland:
George O’Malley comes from an agricultural background in county Mayo where he still lives and works. He has international experience of rural economies and he says the problems for the west of Ireland start in Dublin with a policy of ‘total neglect’.
He argues that Knock airport is one of the most underdeveloped resources the West of Ireland has.
His outlook for the future of rural economies is bleak unless urgent action is taken – he even says it could be too late to reverse the damage done through under-development in the West:
