The diocese of Killala, straddling west Sligo and north Mayo, has just published a report on the rural west. Crusade for Survival 2000-2001 is an update on an initiative taken last year by the Bishop of Killala, Dr Tom Finnegan. It complements the recent State of the West report from the Western Development Commission.
Parish and diocesan councils within the Killala borders were asked to identify priorities for development, while also facing up to the problem of rural depopulation and decline.
The title is stark, but the tone is intended to be optimistic; as Dr Finnegan says in his introduction, a sign that a new spirit of self-help is replacing "an beal bocht" in the rural west.
During a recent visit to the area to publish the Ballycroy Development Plan, the Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, said the Government intended to support 15 areas which had lost most population since 1926 and 1996. He indicated to the bishop that many of those parishes would be within the Killala diocese.
The parishes extend across an area which has not forgotten the Great Famine. There was a short period of growth in the 1970s, when 20,000 emigrants returned to Connacht, but rural communities continued to wane, and the province lost a fifth of its population in the 65 years to 1991. It is against this backdrop that there is frustration over the Government's failure to support the Objective One status designation for the region in the National Development Plan.
The audit starts with Ballycroy, which describes itself as a "very friendly and welcoming rural parish" with a beautiful landscape. However, the population has halved in 50 years, from 1,500 to 750. One school which had 120 pupils back then now has 10 on its register.
Although farming is still the main source of income, migration is still a reality for many. Young people from the parish have moved to towns or commute to work, travelling up to 80 miles a day. There are about 60 vacant houses in the parish, with an exceptionally high percentage of people living alone or with an aged dependant.
The community council lists a number of ideas in relation to tourism and suggests resettlement - "especially of our emigrants" - as another solution to Ballycroy's development problems. Its inhabited island, Inishbiggle, needs Government assistance if it is to survive, it says. Belmullet and the Erris deanery lists sewage treatment as its top priority.
It also identifies upgrading of the ESB and the need for improving telephone coverage, both land line and mobile.
The growing elderly population living in isolated areas faces the "unsavoury prospect" of old people's homes. It says housing developments are also required for its emigrants who have contributed so much to the local economy and "long to return to the place of their birth".
Belmullet and Erris parish lists job losses, including 113 at the Warner's clothing factory just over a year ago, but also lists new prospects. It thanks Mr O Cuiv for setting up a task force, but says it is "tired of hearing about the Council for the West and the BMW area without seeing any benefits for Erris".
It gives a short list of infrastructural problems, but also notes there is "no plan by Government, county council or Udaras na Gaeltachta to ensure that the Erris area benefits directly from the gas find" - being the Corrib field, developed by Enterprise Energy Ireland and partners.
Corrib gas and its benefits are the main priority for the Kilcommon-Erris parish, which says the community is deeply divided over the question of the possible gas landfall. Kilmore parish reports that a mushroom factory has opened since its last report.
It would like a parish community which shows care and concern for its senior citizens, which provides social opportunities for its young people, and which has begun to bridge the gap between the high number of deaths and the low number of births.
Easkey-Rathlee parish makes suggestions for the Council for the West, including introduction of affordable housing along the lines of the controversial Upper Shannon scheme and a reduction in holiday homes which are occupied for three weeks annually and are "dead and darkened for the rest of the year".
It says changes are required in FAS criteria to suit the employees who work on these schemes in rural areas. Like many of the parishes, it too complains about excessively stringent rules and regulations governing planning permission.
In spite of coastal proximity, few of the parishes identify marine resources as an area for growth. Most refer to tourism and sea angling, apart from Killala which mentions mariculture as a possible opportunity. The majority of the parishes say the crisis in farming needs to be urgently addressed.
Castleconnor parish, which has a vibrant community, cites the US novelist Carson McCullers, who wrote that "to know who you are, you must have a place to come from". The phrase "captures the importance of identity", it says. "Not only must you have a place to come from, you must know this place.
"The idea of inviting individual parishes to take stock has helped us to restore our vision, to reflect on our rich heritage, to take stock of the present and to focus on the future."
Contact number
Readers who wish to contact Lorna Siggins can leave messages by phoning (01) 670 7711, extension 6299