Comment & Opinion

OPINION The recent Carrowbeg River ‘clean up’, undertaken unilaterally by some locals, has damaged Westport’s biodiversity

COUNTY VIEW John Healy on the contribution of Dr Anthony McBride (brother of Major John McBride), who served for 33 years as Mayo County Surgeon

EDITORIAL The northwest is the only region of Ireland to become ‘significantly poorer’ relative to the European average

SECOND READING Kevin Hegarty reflects on the rewards of giving, from the troubled Silas Marner to Patagonia owner Yvon Chouinard

COMMENT John Bradley on the ill-fated Danish warship Bornholm, which floundered in an Atlantic storm near Newport in January 1782

OPINION The sight of a digger brutally ploughing through the the Carrowbeg’s river islands on the Mall was shocking, writes Pat Fahy