The changing face of Christmas shopping is being felt in villages far west in Connemara this festive period as landmark shops shut their doors.
Lettermore and Roundstone have both lost local shops this year, while Carna is set to lose Tí Mhóráin's in the coming weeks.
Máirtín Ó Catháin reports from Connemara:
The local shop, once a landmark in rural Ireland, is coming under increasing pressure in the modern world and that is epitomised along the West Connemara coastline this Christmas.
During the year that is now fading into the winter darkness, twilight has also come for a shops in Roundstone and Lettermore.
The doors were closed on John Woods shop in Roundstone recently and the grocery shop in Plunket O' Toole's in Lettermore was shut earlier in 2025.
And as the end of the year draws closer, there is news that the grocery shop in Tí Mhóráin in the village of Carna is to close, temporarily at least, in a few week's time.
The person who ran the business for some years past is not renewing her lease.
Tí Mhóráin's shop has been in business in Carna for over three generations of the family, and efforts are afoot to find a new operator.
This is Máirtín Ó Catháin for Galway Bay Fm in Connemara.
