About 48 miles an hour. That’s how long it took for one local businesswoman to send an email from her home in Munterconnaught in Co Cavan to Maynooth in Co Kildare.

“You would be quicker putting your information on a memory stick and driving. With this high-speed broadband, it will now travel 20,000 miles an hour,” says Peadar Gill, community representative for the people of Munterconnaught, who were announced as the winners of Eir’s Fibre to the Home competition last Thursday in Knocktemple NS.

The competition invited communities across Ireland to outline how being fibre-powered would positively affect their lives, their businesses and their homes. The competition was open to communities with no access to high-speed broadband, awaiting the deployment of the National Broadband Plan.

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Worth €250,000, this community will soon be getting a much-needed upgrade.

“For us, it’s the communications equivalent of the M3 motorway. This technological advance will improve the lives of everyone in the parish.

“It’s going to help the local businesses, and that includes farmers, stay-at-home mothers and all the people working and running businesses from their homes, who all need improving technology,” he says.

In total, 36 communities from across Ireland entered the competition earlier this year, submitting creative and compelling entries that clearly demonstrated the benefits of fibre-to-the-home technology.

The Irish Farmers Journal acted as judges alongside the Small Firms Association, online digital publication Silicon Republic and the Irish Farmers’ Association, all of whom welcome the initiative.

Local farmers Patrick and Noleen Skelly called their current internet service “disastrous”, and are looking forward to the benefits of high-speed broadband.

“Yesterday the weather was very poor, and our internet was down all day. When I’m out on the farm, I’ll be able to record and download animal records and remedies. At the moment, I have to do it all in a book, and it’s put on the long finger. This will help keep all the records up to date more easily,” says Patrick.

“We have two children in secondary school and they do an awful lot of work online now. It could take them hours, and nobody else can do anything while they’re online, so it means that we’re not taking turns doing our work.

“We have a child with special needs too, and we’re involved in various support groups, so it’s very important to be able to share information as well,” says Noleen.

Harry Whitley is another local farmer who says his current internet service is holding him back.

“I have 77 hectares and about 180 cattle. I’m very busy but when I go to do something online the internet is usually down, whether it’s the weather, or everybody is on it at the same time. It’s definitely holding me back. You try to do it at night then and you’re there until all hours, falling asleep and making mistakes. It’s hair-pulling stuff,” he says.

Future plans

Peadar Gill talked about the work put in to win this prize and the future plans for the community.

“It’s going to transform people’s lives so much. It’s going to bring our emigrants closer to home, and it’s going to allow us to broadcast weddings and football matches.

“This is a fantastic community. They saw what was needed and then they did what was needed to win. Today is a culmination of about 1,000 man hours gone into this project.

“Our local Foróige has already started collating some ideas about technology training for some of our senior citizens,” he says.

The competition follows Eir’s successful trial in Belcarra, Co Mayo, which has seen businesses and residents of this rural community enjoy the enormous economic, educational and social benefits of having access to high-speed broadband.

Richard Moat, CEO of Eir, said they were overwhelmed with the quality of all the entries and the creativity shown, and choosing a winner was extremely difficult.

“Munterconnaught clearly communicated that high-speed broadband is the key to a successful future. Their detailed entry included a residential survey highlighting how 91% of the community is open to using high-speed broadband, giving 63% the option to work from home. Twenty case studies outlined the social, educational, medical and business challenges faced without high-speed broadband.

“It was great to see the scale of engagement across the community with the local GAA club, heritage society, Foróige, Knocktemple National School and parents’ association all contributing to the successful entry. We are confident that Munterconnaught will enjoy the same benefits that Belcarra does and we are looking forward to joining them on their high-speed broadband journey,” he says.

Four other communities – Allihies Parish, Portmagee, Ogonelloe and Mountshannon – were runners-up, and will now be included in the Open Eir phase one development beginning in 2017, benefiting from high-speed broadband sooner than expected.