The inaugural meeting of the Ballinasloe Community Action Committee will be held this Friday 30th November at 8.30pm in Gullannes Hotel, Ballinasloe. The committee, the brainchild of local resident Brendan Fahy, aims to unite and empower local residents ensuring their voices are heard on all matters affecting the town as a whole as opposed to one specific area.

The purpose of this committee is to restore citizen participation, even if this means just going to the occasional meeting. The idea of a large group of people participating in a social movement is an alien phenomenon in this country now, more is the pity.

The town of Ballinasloe has recently seen much needed development in the form of the recently opened four star hotel, The Carlton Shearwater; Easons bookstore; a large residential home complex for the elderly (currently under development); countless new housing estates and is poised for much more development with no less than three planning applications for shopping centres being received by Ballinasloe Town Council recently. These aforementioned new developments coupled with the planned new streets earmarked for the land north of Main Street and the redevelopment of the area known as "Back" brings about change that will affect all local residents.

The first meeting of the committee this coming Friday 30th November  will focus on writing a constitution, electing a committee and formalising the name of the committee and establishing what are some of the issues concerning the citizens of Ballinasloe and the best way forward to find solutions to these problems.

The organisers of the committee can by contacted by email on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This has the potential to make real change, and improve this town for its citizens for the better, so let's make it work!