A robot maker in Edgeworthstown woke up on Friday morning to headlines suggesting the town in which he makes his machines is the one which will suffer most at their cold and lifeless hands in the years ahead. “I’m just waiting for the lynch mob to arrive now,” says Richard McCaffrey of Dynamic Control Solutions (DCS) with a laugh when asked if he is now being viewed as a latterday Dr Frankenstein by locals raging against the machines they fear may be coming to take their jobs

Today we held the CUBS/SRERC creative rural economy workshop. 120 academics, business practitioners and social entrepreneurs attended the workshop. Delegates attended from Enterprise Ireland, Government Departments, the Regional Assemblies, Local Development Agencies, County Councils and other bodies. The event and my research report (co-authored with Dr Justin Doran) launched on the day `Automation and Irish Towns' made national headlines on all major national, regional and