Group advises: start own shops

RURAL people were urged yesterday to set up and run their own community shops to replace private retail outlets that have closed.

Irish Rural Link (IRL) — the national group campaigning for sustainable rural communities — urged the move at the opening of its annual two-day conference in Cavan town.

IRL chief executive, Seamus Boland, said many villages in rural Ireland have witnessed not only the decline in public services, but also the disappearance of private services such as local shops.