West Mayo town alight with Christmas cheer as special guest turns on lights

Christmas spirit took over the Fairgreen in Westport on Thursday night.

Families and children wrapped up and braved the rain to welcome Santa, who arrived in style onboard a souped up motorcycle!

For once, Paddington wasn’t the main attraction at the Fairgreen as Father Christmas had the honour of officially turning on the Christmas lights. 

As luck would have it, there was a break in the rain just in time for the countdown. 

Westport coming together

The lights were organised by Westport Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber's CEO, Geraldine Horkan, told The Mayo News that the Christmas lights really showed Westport coming together.

"It really was a collaboration between the Chamber of Commerce, the local business people and the council, council workers and everybody. It's Westport coming together. It goes to show that when people pull together and when there's good will, everybody benefits."

The contributions of local businesses saved the lights this year. 

"Mayo County Council have stopped funding lights in all towns. The council no longer take responsibility for Christmas lighting. So somebody had to raise money and the Chamber stepped in. We're so grateful to the people in the town."

"The contribution of local businesses definitely saved the Christmas lights. Some of the larger businesses were very generous, but some of the smaller businesses were exceptionally generous given the size of their business. It made us see is how important the Christmas lights are to people. Some sole traders give four and 500 euro and one gave a thousand because it means so much to them, but every donation added so that we're now almost at our target," Horkan explains.

The Westport Christmas Tree (Credit: Amayo photography )

The Chamber CEO also singled out Elsie Higgins and Karen Moore, who painted all those trees and ornaments around Paddington Bear on The Fairgreen. 

"We just want to thank them because that was all voluntary work, and that really adds to the attraction."

Gus O'Toole and  his colleagues from the council "really rode in behind Moran Electrical Services this year, and they provided a lot of help, because without them, it wouldn't have been up in time."

The local councillors also contributed and Cllr Peter Flynn (Cathaoirleach Westport Belmullet MD) was MC on the night and was joined by Deputy Keira Keogh and Cllrs Brendan Mulroy and John O’Malley and Fr John Kenny.

The collaboration and generosity from the community and council workers ensured the lights were installed on time.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme