BACK IN 1994, a primary school in Castlebar, Co. Mayo was listening in to The Gay Byrne Show on the radio when a group of young students and their teacher got increasingly concerned about what they heard. 

So concerned that they were motivated to write to then taoiseach Albert Reynolds, who subsequently responded to them to praise their civic concern.

The issue at hand was the economic situation in the west of the country, with the segment on The Gay Byrne Show that so touched a nerve called ‘Saving The West’. 

The letters written to the taoiseach and his response are contained in newly released files sent from the Department of An Taoiseach to the National Archives. 

Many of these files contain historical details which we have been exploring over the past couple of days, but they also shed a light on societal matters, including these letters from eight and ten-year-olds who would now be in or around 40. 

The item touched such a nerve because the teacher of the 3rd and 4th classes in Ballyheane National School at the time, Annin Groonel, wrote to Reynolds saying that population decline was the cause for her own job to be soon lost at the school. 

Groonel referenced that Reynolds himself had come from a rural background, unlike his immediate predecessors as taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and Charles Haughey.  

Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

“Having spent five years teaching in the more socially deprived areas of Dublin, I have no wish to return there. I urge you, in your economic strategies, to remember the rural Ireland you yourself are/were part of,” Groonel wrote. 

The teacher added that “actions speak louder then words” and included the letters from her students “whose votes you will seek soon!”

Here are a selection of them, with the odd spelling error from the children included: 

Dear TaoiseachI am writing to tell you what I heard on the radio. I feel we can do something about this.

We can get tourists to come to the West by building holiday homes and places of leisure. To make the West a welcoming place.

I think what should you do about it.

About the Farmers:

We should put the small farmers together. We should build the West’s Communities together. I would like that because we could fight together.

Yours sincerely.
Paul Stack

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Dear Taoiseach,

I am writing to tell you about the terrible things that is happening in Mayo. I heard it on the GB Show. I would like to set up a car dealer shop. I feel very sad about this. I love the West and I always will.

I don’t expect you to do anything, please do something about this, please, please, please.

Is mise le meas,

Joseph Staynton

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Dear TaoiseachI would like to help the West’s population. I would like you to get some men and build shops for Co Mayo to work in. I do not want to leave Ballyheane. And I do not the farms to go away. I love animals. And I do not want to lose my own farm.

Is mise le meas

Grace Kelly, age 8 

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Dear Taoiseach

I really want to help after hearing the programme on the radio so I have thought of making a little tree nursery in a field near us. I feel very bad about the people who have left! I wish the people who left Mayo would cop on and realise the mistakes and come back and pull together to help our community. I will make a sign to tell people to stay in there county.

I know I am small to do big things, but everything helps. So everyone must help.

Yours gratefully,
Brendan Staunton

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Dear Taoiseach.

I have just listened to the Gay Byrne show. I feel that people should stay in Castlebar. Nobody should move. Castlebar is a very nice place. I was thinking when I grow that I would try to make a supermarket. I would try to get ten our more working in it. I think you should try to stop the people from going to Dublin and other places. You should stop them going from their home places. You should make more and more people go in to Castlebar than go out. There should be more shops.

Is mise le mass,
Elaine Bohan

National Archives National Archives

Other children who wrote to Reynolds had their own ideas for the taoiseach, such as Davina Bourke (aged 10) who said that what he needed to do was “make little factories like pet shops and things to give people work, but without ruining the communities.”

Michael Kilcoyne (aged 10½) was clearly accustomed to storms in his native west and wrote: “When I get older I would like to set up a place that would plant other trees for trees that have fallen in a storm. I think you can help too by including it in every budget and meetings you have.”

John Reilly (aged 10) was more annoyed about the potential for rural decay than many of his young peers, writing: “I am disgusted about the way the west is been treated.”

He added: “Why is everyone leaving the West to go to the cities in the East to get jobs? I’ll tell you why. It’s because nobody is looking after the west. All people want is cities. I thought Ireland was known for its countryside not for its cities. It’s Emerald Ele not City Ele. But cities are taking over Ireland.”

Taoiseach’s response

The National Archives file contained a handwritten note from one of the taoiseach’s advisors addressed to “Albert”, asking him to “do up a reply to this teacher and her pupils”. 

In his reply to Groonel, the taoiseach says he “shares the concern of you and your students at population decline in the West”. 

“I can assure you that the West will get its fair share of funding when it comes to sharing out the benefits which will accrue under the National Development Plan,” he says, including a copy of a recent speech ‘A Crusade for Survival’, about steps being taken to help the region. 

The Taoiseach concludes with a mention for all the children who wrote to him:

“I congratulate you on the writing abilities of your class and I think that Amanda, Brendan, Carol, David, Davina, Derek, Elaine, Grace, James, John, Joseph (Mc), Joseph (S), Laurence, Michael, Michéal, Nicola, Paul and Rose Marie are all to be commended for their initiative in this matter.”

(National Archives document reference number: 2025/115/412)