The old home town doesn’t look the same

I HEARD with dismay last Wednesday about the loss of 385 jobs at the Square D factory in my home town of Ballinasloe.

This is a near-fatal blow visited on a town that has experienced nothing but job losses, empty promises (in the form of sporadic task forces) and planning neglect (omission from the spatial strategy) since the onset of the Celtic Tiger economy in the 1990s.

Ballinasloe, once the proud location of three flourishing industries - AT Cross, Square D and the indigenous Dubarry - has witnessed a major reversal of fortune.