The John Collison theory and how Mayo is impacted
Lacking the nerve to finish what was started
It isn't a generational divide.
It isn't urban versus rural either.
But there's a sentiment growing in this country, and growing in large numbers, that might fairly be called accelerationist - a belief that after decades of prosperity, now is the time to see the largesse spent on infrastructure, in our cities and in regions alike.
The local reaction to the Sligo greenway plan is one sign of it. So was Councillor Peter Flynn's intervention at a recent Mayo County Council Environment SPC, where he pressed EirGrid and ESB on why this county still isn't properly hooked up to a grid capable of taking all that this country can produce, once and for all.
These are the projects that get shelved, rehashed, handed to a consultant to make a few fistfuls on a feasibility study, and then filed away neat and pretty in a civil servant's locker to gather dust.
And still, people believe they can be delivered. Who amongst us would be credible arguing against an N17 on tracks, connecting this county to the two major cities in the province?
Who would say Mayo shouldn't have a full-scale grid connection? Powering the electrification of Ireland from our shores.
Those against will point to windfarm proliferation, to the fear that we're opening ourselves up to data centres across the county.
But any large energy user (AKA, a factory) is required to fund a line upgrade regardless - it'd be no different to a TD refusing to advocate for an IDA site.
We need to be prepared to host industry, and it's the government's job to bring the infrastructure to the table, not ours to shy away from it.
We need to grow our share of the pie. We have the space to develop and the people to do it. Mayo needs to show more ambition, but it requires government policy giving a local authority with imagination the ability to bring this county forward.
While the mire of clientelism is rarely far from Mayo politics, it's refreshing to see foresight and strategic thinking from local representatives on matters like energy and transport, both central to our lives and our future prosperity.
Fine Gael's Peter Flynn, an environment SPC member, pushed for a proper 400kV line for the county - Mayo currently sits well short of that, with only an underground 110kV project the sole upgrade in train.
Flynn pointed out that discussions about a 400kV connection go back 13 or 14 years, to when he himself first chaired that same SPC.
What's on offer now is a miserly reduction on that old ambition, and his frustration with EirGrid and ESB - that they're lacking the appetite to properly upgrade the grid in this county - was plain to see.
And it isn't only ambition that's lacking. At that same meeting, councillor Sean Carey laid out the reality of what Erris is living with in the meantime - outages that strike even in calm weather, with no warning, hitting hardest the elderly and anyone relying on medical equipment, and repairs that can drag on for days.
Councillor Harry Barrett put the price of it in plain terms too: record numbers of households in arrears, the highest standing charges in Europe, ordinary working families effectively subsidising data centres and wind farms, rather than the other way round.
Flynn asked the obvious question - why does Ireland have the highest electricity rates in Europe, and would a subsidised rate ever be considered for communities living next to the very infrastructure they're being asked to host?
If Mayo is to carry the pylons, turbines and the lines for the rest of the country's ambition, it's a fair question why the county should pay a premium for the privilege of currently doing without.
John Collison's Irish Times essay landed in a similar spirit - and closer to home than he probably knew. Among his list of fumbled national infrastructure was the Grid West transmission project, "linking Dublin to the windy west, shelved in 2017".
It's the same scheme Flynn is still asking about: the 400kV line first mooted in 2012, quietly swapped out for a fraction of its ambition once the political cover ran thin.
While EirGrid state that it was re-evaluated with a reduction in wind farms for the north of the county, it's fair to say there were few councillors in the pro-pylon camp.
That's exactly the pattern playing out with the Sligo greenway. Iarnród Éireann has agreed to lease over 30km of the disused Bellaghy-Collooney alignment to Sligo County Council for a cycleway - campaigners spent years fighting to keep it protected for the Western Rail Corridor's extension north.
The reaction from opposition politicians in Yeats County has been outright fury; here in Mayo, it's been closer to bemusement. Councillor Patsy O'Brien put it most plainly: "What I cannot support is sacrificing a railway corridor to provide one. We should have the ambition to provide both." The greenway and the railway.
What makes that decision harder to stomach is the contrast sitting right beside it.
The Claremorris–Athenry line, once mooted in decades-away terms, is now a funded, targeted priority under the National Development Plan, with delivery aimed at 2030.
That's 34 miles of new track reconnecting Mayo to Galway for the first time in decades, and proof enough that when the political will is actually there, timelines can move.
If a Claremorris extension onto Ireland West Airport Knock followed swiftly, then on through Charlestown and into Sligo, it would see the realisation of the Atlantic Economic Corridor in something close to full - jobs, connectivity, a modern spine of infrastructure with Mayo sitting at the heart of it.
The lesson from Flynn's grid question, Carey's Erris electricity outages, and O'Brien's rail fight is the same one Collison drew nationally: Ireland doesn't lack the money, ideas or engineering.
We lack the nerve to finish what was started, and the fairness to make the places that carry the load feel like they've gained something from it.