Street politics: the rural village

The village of Galmoy has been hit by depopulation and the demise of local services, while planning and drink-driving laws have also had an impact.

Locals say the next government needs to be more aware of rural communities’ needs — especially as their demands are relatively small, writes Caroline O’Doherty

IN 2005 the village of Galmoy, Co Kilkenny, made history by bringing home the first ever all-Ireland junior club hurling championship.

The club, its players, officers, members and supporters — which is the same as saying all of Galmoy — were euphoric. But the victory couldn’t hide the fact that the village had recorded a less welcome bit of local history that year too by being unable to field a minor side for the first time in decades. The same fate has since befallen the under-16s.

“Families are getting smaller. Before, teams were made up of families — two and three brothers at a time. Now, looking at the under 14 team, it’s all singles. If there are two boys from the one family, it’s good going,” club PRO Jerry Drennan explains.

The club has now taken the unusual step of setting aside parish rivalries and amalgamating with Windgap GAA Club, 35 miles away. The partnership is only for the minors and under 16s — for all the other teams Windgap are adversaries, not allies. It is a confusing but creative solution to what in modern Ireland is a rare problem.

The country’s population surge over the last decade has been well-chronicled and is clearly evident in many towns and villages that are bursting out of their boundaries, but others like Galmoy have just been praying their numbers won’t dip.

The latest census figures were a welcome relief. Galmoy in 2002 had 283 residents. Galmoy in 2006 was exactly the same. Taking in the outlying areas, locals say the village serves up to 500 people.

A question arises, nevertheless, about what services the village can actually provide. Its beautifully kept three-teacher primary school, for instance, used to be a four-teacher school until pupil numbers fell.

The village has a Catholic Church, but there is a strong belief that the Church, increasingly short on numbers itself, will have to consider stretching one priest across two parishes.

There is one major employer in the area, the zinc mine, which has a staff of about 200, but few would place a bet on how long the deposits will last.

Galmoy has a post office but no longer has the shop that went with it.

“You can’t get a paper or a pint of milk in the village anymore. On a Sunday after Mass, the tradition was that you went to the shop and stood around talking and gradually made your way home. Now everyone’s in the car and off to Johnstown or Cullahill or Rathdowney and there’s no chat,” says Jerry.

There is also a fear that the village will lose the post office, as their neighbours in the village of Crosspatrick did when the local operator there retired.

“It shouldn’t be a case that it’s the responsibility of one owner or one family to keep a post office going. It’s an essential public service and if someone can’t continue on or doesn’t want to, An Post should find a replacement,” says local electrician Sean Doherty.

The village has a pub and another one is located about a mile away but five others have closed down within a five-mile radius in the last few years.

“There wasn’t the business for them because there isn’t the population to generate the business. As you see, a lot of our issues are population-related. I often think there should be help for businesses in small places like ours.

“They should be subsidised rather than made pay rates. They should be supported rather than penalised, because trying to make a go of it in a small place is penalty enough.”

Given the disheartening trend, Sean is delighted that his own family is bucking it. Four of his seven children have settled in the community or are in the process of building a home. Again, he believes the State could be more supportive — especially when it comes to planning.

“The planning regulations leave a lot to be desired. Everybody knows you have to keep within guidelines, but you only find out what they are when you already have the plans drawn. Then you’re told there’s something unacceptable about the height or the shape or the location and you have to go back to the drawing board. It’s expensive enough without that kind of messing around. I can’t understand why there isn’t a plan for the village that says there can be X number of two-storey houses, X number in X location and X number in such a style and then at least you would know what you can and can’t do before you set out.

Jerry also believes more coordinated development is needed.

“The village would be made if there was a small estate. If somebody came in and built 10 or 12 houses together, that would maintain a shop and a post office.”

When a village has limited facilities, it pays to keep them strong and vibrant, and Sean is annoyed that the national school can lose a teacher if pupil numbers dip below the threshold by just one child.

“In urban areas classified as disadvantaged, a special allowance is made to let them keep their teachers when pupil numbers fall. The same allowance should be made for us because we have a different sort of disadvantage. Being able to offer education with a good pupil-teacher ratio is one of the few advantages we have.”

The key advantage for Galmoy is the attractiveness of country life at a time when city living is ever more stressful. The fact that two of Sean’s family commute to Kildare and Limerick for work each morning but resolutely live in the village is proof for him that rural beats urban.

Jerry is another country commuter, teaching Irish, French and Maths at second level in Banagher, Co Offaly. “It’s nothing like commuting as you normally think of it,” he says.

“I was in Dublin doing Irish orals in April and I had to be up at the crack of dawn to make a journey of two or three miles. Here, I leave home at ten past eight and I’m in work 40 miles away in less than an hour — and I’m not in a bad temper when I get there. The draw of the village is very strong. We have lads travelling from Dublin and Wexford for training here on a Tuesday night. It’s pure love of the game and love of the community.”

Considering how important the GAA club is to the area — and how dedicated Galmoy is to GAA — it is a source of frustration that red tape prevents the club developing its facilities.

They built the clubhouse themselves in 1984 — back when they could boast of having a senior team — but the pitch belongs to the parish and even though the GAA are its sole users and caretakers, the fact that they don’t own it prevents them from getting either GAA or Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism grants to maintain or improve it.

The situation means a Trojan fundraising effort must be made every year. An auction held in January is the biggest event, raising €12,000 to €15,000, or about two-thirds of the club’s annual budget.

“We couldn’t afford to buy the field, even if it was for sale. We’ve only a small group of people to collect from and yet we’re bound by the same rules as clubs in large urban places with plenty of population to ask for money from,” says Sean.

The club has survived where other social outlets have died.

“All the other things we had growing up — dramatic classes, Macra na Feirme, card games — those are all dead now. Even the bingo is after finishing in Rathdowney, and it was going for years. The ICA group here died too although the women kept up the ladies catering committee. They make tea in the parochial hall for after funerals and the whole village goes along.

“It’s a very important tradition and thankfully it’s not gone,” adds Jerry.

Talk of socialising inevitably raises the thorny issue of the drink-driving crackdown and its impact on rural life.

“I agree with it absolutely for all the obvious reasons, but we’re treated the same as if we are a big town with public transport. We can’t hop on the bus or wave down a taxi. And then there’s the morning-after tests. We can’t do the responsible thing and get public transport to work if we had a few the night before. In a country area, that’s near enough to saying you are not to drink at all. They may bring back Matt Talbot. I accept bringing it in no problem, but bring it in with a wider plan to keep social life in small places alive. There is a tendency now for people to sit in watching television instead of getting out meeting people.

“That’s not good for anyone or for any community,” says Sean.

Public transport may be non-existent but nearby Urlingford is a mecca for private coaches, the towns of Kilkenny, Portlaoise and Thurles are all within a 20-mile radius and Ballybrophy train station is six miles away.

There is no local fire brigade, but there are part-time stations within a few miles in two different directions. Sean had the misfortune to test their speed and efficiency when his home was badly damaged by fire in 2000, and he says he couldn’t fault them.

Broadband hasn’t reached them yet, but they believe it’s on the way. No GP has set up a practice in the village, but there are surgeries in the neighbouring towns and Galmoy is covered by the Caredoc out-of-hours scheme.

Several hospitals are within reach too although a running-down of some services has concerned them.

“It used to be that if you got injured playing, you were X-rayed and put in plaster in St Lukes (the general hospital in Kilkenny city), but now you go there, they have a look at you and you have to move on to Waterford for treatment. Waterford’s a great hospital, but it’s 60 miles away and the roads between here and Waterford are brutal,” says Jerry.

The contrast between national and regional roads has never been more stark since the upgrading of the N8 stretch of the Dublin-Cork route to a motorway got under way. The new road is passing through Galmoy parish and the speed of progress has been impressive.

“It will be some road when it’s finished and you’ll whiz from Cork to Dublin, but my concern would be that the back roads would be let go. Those are the roads we use most and they’re already in poor enough condition. A wet winter does a lot of damage and if they’re neglected, they’re impossible.”

The next government needs to be more aware of rural communities’ needs, Jerry says, especially as their demands are relatively small. In the meantime, he takes heart from the fact that a number of new houses are going up on the outskirts of the village so there is hope that the next Census will show a turnaround in population.

“The graveyard was extended. I don’t know whether that was a good sign or a bad one but we’re taking it as good. People had started to have to be buried in Rathdowney or Johnstown, so at least now they can be buried locally. Obviously someone thinks there’s going to be enough of us around in the future to fill it so we’ll take that as optimistic,” he adds brightly.