Skibbereen has laid claim to the title of Ireland’s first 1GB town with those behind the digital Ludgate Hub declaring that the venture is a blueprint for the regeneration of rural Ireland.

Rural Ireland’s first digital hub, creating 2,000 jobs and increasing the local economy by €37.5m annually, has opened in Skibbereen.

Luddites were 19th century English textile workers who feared technology would end their trade. The term is used to describe people who resist change.