Another gas find in Mayo! More exciting news for Mayo and Castlebar this week following hard on the announcement in the Connaught Telegraph earlier this week that Padraic Flynn has proposed the pedestrianisation of Main Street. He wants to roof over Castlebar's main thoroughfare in the style of the great arcades of the major European cities.

Enterprising Oil has announced another Mayo gas find which already tests have shown to be potentially highly commercial. This time, however, the gas is not offshore but onshore. A large commercial find of gas has been discovered beneath Lough Mask's quaternary sedimentary deposits. A highly unusual shale formation has interested scientists for years in Lough Mask. This pre-dates the Ice Age formation of Lough Mask by many millions of years but over time has built up enormous reserves of extremely valuable hydrocarbons equivalent to many millions of barrels of oil. The value of this for Mayo could be immense as it will be relatively cheap to exploit from a mere 60 metres below the surface - very shallow compared to the depths at which they drill at off the Mayo coast.

Enterprise Oil has come under fire recently from western politicians and community groups because of their reluctance to provide local spurs off the main pipeline to western towns such as Castlebar and Ballina. There was general welcome for the Lough Mask gas find, however, as it is obvious that this will be a major source of cheap energy to power the economy of Mayo well into this Century.

Already the economic spin off is delighting industrial development bodies in the West. "While reliance on the new information age and the so called 'dotcom' businesses is all very well," said a spokesman for the IDA who did not wish to be named, "it's all a bit vague and already there are signs that the tech stocks are falling apart. Can this be good for Mayo and the West?" he said. "Real wealth comes from producing material goods, and the gas will finally allow us to enter the real industrial age."

Mayo County Council confirmed last night that an application to build a new gas refinery has been submitted for planning permission. "This will add local value to the gas find which we are not getting in the case of the offshore marine find" said John O'Byrne an IDA spokesman. It is likely that a new gas refinery will now be established at Ballinchalla Bay near Ballinrobe. However, already a Tourmakeady action group has been set up to lobby for this to be located on the opposite shore near Tourmakeady. "Is iontach an rud é seo ar fad" a deir Sean O'Máille agus é a labhairt thar a gceann an 'Action Group' "Ach is gá don refinery a bheith i dTourmakeady".

The find was welcomed by Castlebar Chamber of Commerce, Mayo County Council and Castlebar UDC late yesterday evening. The drilling licence had been kept secret for obvious reasons so the announcement came as a surprise to many. It appears, however, that a carefully orchestrated media campaign has now begun to ensure that the gas will be welcomed far and wide. In particular, the idea of a smelter that can take advantage of this new cheap source of energy is being promulgated.

As usual, however, the bloody environmentalists are acting up. They have lodged an objection with the European Commission going on about fish and stuff like that - you know the usual rubbish about what a nice environment we have here in the West. When will they learn that you can't eat scenery. It may be unique but who gives a damn? But if you've read down this far you really deserve to know that it's all a bit of gas just to keep you, dear reader, amused on April 1st 2000.