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Mary Lou McDonald.
A CONFERENCE will take place in the River Island Hotel Castleisland on this Saturday, November 24, at 6.30pm which will discuss ways in which life can be brought back to rural Ireland.
The keynote speaker on the evening will be Uachtarán Shinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald TD.
Panellists will include: Joe Sheerin from Kiltyclogher, a member of the KiltyLive campaign which was just last week featured on a TG4 documentary Banú nó Slánú; Cllr. Toiréasa Ferris; Chairman of the Kerry IFA Pat O’Driscoll; Séamus Sherlock, rural development chairman at the ICSA; John Reidy of the Maine Valley Post and the Patrick O’Keefe festival and Michael John Kearney of Castleisland Chamber of Alliance and former senior executive of Kerry Group.
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Attendees will be encouraged also to contribute from the floor on the evening. Speaking about the conference, one of the organisers, Sinn Fein’s Kate McSweeney from Castleisland, said; “By holding this conference we are taking it upon ourselves, by having a gathering of minds, to think outside the box and put in place ways in which the many aspects of life in rural Ireland can be revived before it’s too late.”
“Perhaps by applying some of the ideas gleaned from this discussion Castleisland and it’s hinterland, as well as other similar areas, could be seen as a proactive positive thinking town and act as a template for other struggling rural towns in the future. We can sit back and let the decimation happen around us or gather as a community and force revival.”
