There were reports of strange lights flickering around Knock Airport several weeks ago. "That's the Monsignor stirring," one local resident speculated. "He doesn't like to hear this talk of a casino."
The casino has been mooted by an independent Mayo councillor, Mr Richard Finn, who believes it would transform an area of the county known as "the black triangle".
An attempt to open a national casino in Phoenix Park was turned down by the planning authorities last year; Mr Finn believes the promoters should switch their location to Mayo.
Knock, the private airport built by the late Monsignor Horan in 1986, would make far better sense as a location, the councillor believes.
He has called on the Government to give the idea serious consideration. State investment would be more than met by taxable revenue and the jobs created, he has said.
The former tourism minister and local Fine Gael TD, Mr Enda Kenny, believes that this is just another trivialisation of what should be a serious debate on the future of Knock. The airport, which was dismissed as a "foggy, boggy white elephant" when first proposed by the determined Monsignor Horan, has already proved its success.
When a group of consultants associated with the Texas businessman and former US presidential candidate, Ross Perot, carried out a feasability study on further investment opportunities in the area, the need for tax incentives to attract business interests was the main recommendation. As a result, Mr Kenny secured a tax incentive package, as an amendment to the Finance Bill, during the lifetime of the previous government .
He says: "Subsequent to this, further incentives to allow for a freight-forwarding operation were also agreed to by this Government.
"The problem is that this had to be approved by the European Commission in Brussels."
He believes the validity of the Cabinet decision would be fully tested by a specific business proposal.
"If this Government is committed to regionalisation, then it should be throwing its weight behind Knock and giving it far more attention than it is getting," he says.
"Knock's passenger numbers are increasing, infrastructural improvements are being put in place, and its great advantage is the length of its runway which allows it to handle large aircraft. But it still has three names, and many European travellers still aren't aware of its existence. What it needs is a ministerial shake by the scruff of the neck."
Ironically, another regional airport suffered a severe blow last week when Galway lost its last direct air link with Britain. Only weeks after withdrawing from the new Galway-Luton route, Air Kilroe announced that it was cutting the Galway-Manchester route from last Friday.
A disappointed general manager of the airport, Ms Mary Hurney, said this was "a temporary setback to the longer-term development of Galway regional airport and the establishment of new services."
