First Editorial

Annagh - A Ballyhaunis Magazine

The reasons why …

Tuige iris pobail? Dar linne is beag an dlisteanu ata de dhith ar iarracht mar seo ach ina dhiaidh sin fein is maith an rud i gconai ag tus aon fhiontar a leagan
amach go soileir c'en aidhm ata lies an bhfiontar sin.

The publication of a yearly community magazine can contribute to the life of that community in a number of different ways. Besides the more obvious benefits of
helping to keep the public informed, and perhaps entertained, such a publication can promote a heightened awareness, both within and outside the area, of the
richness of life as it is lived in a small, and in some ways self-contained, section of our country. Nor should it end there: a well-balanced magazine can present
an overall view of community life which many, in the day-to-day ordering of their affairs, would fail to perceive.

It is in the nature of a community magazine to look towards the past: for it often happens that our surroundings can only be fully appreciated by references to
bygone times, or that our attitudes and values have been shaped by almost forgotten events. The past is the great repository of our culture: the revivifying of old
memories, while awakening our sense of history, leads to the development of that most precious of things: a sense of national and personal identity. Further
more, contemplation of the past and the obstacles overcome by earlier generations promote an awareness of what, with effort and determination is possible of
achievement.

But we must be careful to guard against our justifiable pride in the community degeneration into a narrow and exclusive parochialism: it is well to remember that
every local event has its counterpart in the greater world outside. And we should at all times welcome contact with that greater world and extend to its
representatives the neighbourliness that we hope our native sons will find in strange cities and in foreign lands.

With these thoughts in mind we present the first of what we hope will be a long-running series of annual editions of "Annagh". Like so much else, its survival will
depend on peoples' interest and support, neither of which went lacking while this magazine was in the planning stages. We are happy to entrust its future to the
people of Ballyhaunis.

Agus is feidir leis an todhchai sin a bheith ar fheabhas, mar leas thairbheach soisialta, ar choinnioll go dtabharfaidh said seo a bhfuil se ar a gcumas an
chabhair riachtanach don iris tre altanna a scriobh srl. Ta muinin again gur mar seo a bheidh an sceal.