The last surviving shop in the village of Silvermines, Co Tipperary, has reopened after being rescued by a local man who recently bought the premises.
The closure meant locals had to travel to other villages or to Nenagh. The village, historically known for its mining activities, had six shops until recently.
According to Shannon Development tourism executive, Mr Eamon de Stafort, who is championing the village, "this is indicative of what is happening in rural Ireland".
"Trying to keep shops, post offices and schools open is a continuous fight as populations decline and people drift towards urban areas.
"This rural decline has been happening for 20 years. First communities lose a teacher, schools are amalgamated and then they lose a shop or post office", he said.
Mr de Stafort, who lives in the village, is involved in a campaign to save the area from a proposed superdump as a member of the Silvermines Action Group. Waste Management Ireland has indicated it will reapply for planning after recently withdrawing its appeal to Bord Pleanála to build the landfill.
He is also well known in towns and villages throughout the mid-west as the co-ordinator of the regional tidy towns competition. He sees the competition as harnessing the energies and goodwill of local communities.
"It stimulates them, not to mention its significant impact on tourism," he said. He believes the superdump is a threat to the hills over which people like to trek.
He points to the rural decline and suggests that the focus should be on small villages that need better access, medical services and infrastructure to entice people to stay or come to live in them.
"Leader programmes need to be more effective and there has to be intense community involvement if rural Ireland is going to have a role in the future", he said. The Tipperary Leader Group, which received €5.21 million to implement its part of the National Rural Development Programme over the period 2001-2006, stressed that it will be focusing on the development of tourism products and working with communities to enable them to realise the tourism potential of their areas.
The group wants to market existing and new tourism products in a co-ordinated way.
Between 1994 to 2001, the population of north Tipperary has fallen by 2.5 per cent, or about 1,450 people.
Brian McLaughlin