Sustaining rural communities - We can’t let rural Ireland fade away

AS the evenings shorten and the back-to-school advertisements fill premium viewing slots on television we all, metaphorically at least, reach for the warm fleece to stave off the first chills of autumn.

For communities, especially coastal communities who enjoy a summer influx of visitors and the business they bring, the signs of a turning season mark the end of the, hopefully, busy time of the year and bring a day of reckoning.

Has the short summer season generated enough business to help support the community through a long and quiet winter?