An €81 million road named after campaigning journalist and author John Healy was officially opened yesterday by Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey.
The 18.2km route, which bypasses Charlestown and will take an estimated 7,000 vehicles per day off the streets of the Co Mayo town, bisects the smallholding where Healy grew up in the 1930s and 1940s.
The family farm at Castleduff, Carracastle, was the inspiration for Nineteen Acres, Healy's literary follow-up to No One Shouted Stop (Death of an Irish Town), a gloomy chronicle of small town life in the emigration-drained 1950s.
Members of the late John Healy's family who attended yesterday's ribbon-cutting ceremony included his widow, Evelyn, his brothers Gerry and Kevin and his sister June Egan.
Evelyn Healy said her husband, who wrote the acclaimed "Backbencher" column in The Irish Times in the 1960s and 1970s, "would have been proud that the people of Mayo wanted to honour him in this way".
She added: "This fine new road symbolises that to some extent the west has been saved. That would have pleased my husband greatly, for the development of the west was one of his greatest priorities."
Gerry Healy, a retired postman, suggested that his late brother would have been tremendously impressed by the fine thoroughfare running straight as an arrow through tiny fields where he laboured and played as a youngster.
Mr Dempsey admitted that John Healy had been a role model of sorts for him as a politician.
"He inspired a generation of people like me to stand up and fight for their own place," Mr Dempsey commented.
The new bypass, part of the N5 national primary route, will cut journey times between Westport and Dublin. It bypasses both Charlestown and the village of Carracastle.
It is the third major project to be completed in the region this year and will make a significant contribution to the Atlantic Road Corridor, said Mr Dempsey.
By coincidence, the name Healy is also attached to a new link road opened in Limerick yesterday by Minister for Defence and local TD Willie O'Dea.
"I would like to welcome you all here today to the official opening of the Corbally Link Road, which will be known as the Pa Healy Road, in honour of one of the leading figures in Irish sport during the early years of the 20th century," said Mr O'Dea.
Patrick "Pa" Healy was a legendary Limerick all-rounder: he was a national boxing champion, world-class oarsman and international rugby player.
Built at a cost of approximately €8.5 million, the project involved the construction of 900 metres of carriageway, with footpaths and cycle lanes.
These will tie-in also with the recently refurbished canal paths, providing improved access for local residents.