Longford in the Lens

PEOPLE from Lough Rynn Harvest Festival & Vintage Day
🧑‍🦰👩‍🦰👨👩‍🦳🧔‍♂️👨‍🦳👱‍♀️🧑

This fantastic event took place in the grounds of the lovely Lough Rynn Castle. On Sunday, September 1st, a lot of people decided to take part in this festival and I'm sure that everyone enjoyed it.

There were lots of interesting things happening, everyone could find something for themselves. There were animals, old cars, food, great music, agricultural treasures and above all - People. I invite you to a portion of photos of people, if someone recognizes somebody, you can tag them 👍😉

Lough Rynn Castle Leitrim Observer / Leitrim Live

RECORD & CD FAIR, LONGFORD
🎼🎼🎼

Music lovers, compact discs, CDs and cassettes could find something for themselves yesterday. The Record & CD Fair was held in the Garden Centre near Clonbalt Wood, where you could buy, sell or exchange various types of music records. There was a lot of it all, people chose, searched and usually bought. Atmospheric music was played and generally it was a very interesting experience.
Was anyone there yesterday? 🙂
Longford Tourism

STREETS OF LONGFORD 5K
🌧🌧🌧

As part of this year's Longford Marathon, a 5km run took place. Through the streets of our city, next to the most important buildings, in the rain and blowing wind.

In total, about 240 people ran and with the accompanying, other races (marathon, half marathon, ultramarathon and relays) there were 1100 of us runners. I invite you to watch the video I made before the race, during the race and from the finish line. 😉

https://youtu.be/JvwQwU2t9yc?si=3uEaLR5js_4XVkZs


🏃🏃🏃

Streets of Longford 5km, LONGFORD MARATHON 2024 (25.08.24) 🌧🌧🌧 Video from 5k race during the Longford Marathon 2024. Some shots before the race and after finish lane. Lots of rain and around 250 runners. Well done everyo...

Sunday afternoon in July in Granard was relatively quiet. The streets seemed deserted, you could rarely meet anyone. Maybe everyone was resting after the festival that had taken place the previous two days? Or maybe Sundays are just like that here? The thing that caught our attention was the passing of several dozen old tractors, in the heavy rain, some without roofs but with smiles on the faces of the drivers. We sat at the time with a cup of coffee in a local cafe and watched the tractor riders with both admiration and sympathy. 😀

MEETING OF HEROES - start of the Ultramarathoners during the LONGFORD MARATHON 2024 💪💪💪

It wasn't a beautiful and sunny morning. Only ducks like this kind of weather. Of course, no one was bothered by the rain and bravely stood at the starting line at 7 a.m. on Sunday 25th of August. That's when the ultramarathoners (63 km) and slower marathon participants started their run. 🌧🌧🌧

It was great to meet up in the morning, wish them luck and take a few dozen of shots. The 60+ kilometer race was completed by 33 runners, and the difference between first and second was just 9 seconds! Congratulations to everyone, you did a great job. 👏👌

Words of appreciation to the organisers who once again showed complete professionalism and created the best running event in Longford. Well done! 😎

Longford Tourism

Couple of pictures from Drumlish Countryside 🙂 At some point there was a nice meeting. Everyone was curious and no one ran away. 😆

New store in Longford! ☝️
A general store will soon open in the place where Lituanica (similar shop) was for years. Polonez is a chain of Polish stores that have been operating in Ireland for 20 years. 🇮🇪🇵🇱

FLOWERS OF ABBEYLARA 🌺🌷🌼🪻🌸

The streets of Abbeylara were beautifully decorated with flowers. Various colors, near a small river, on buildings, in flowerpots and in the meadow. 🙂

One of the businesses damaged in the fire on Grafton Court, Longford. It's worth helping. ☝️


(https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-beloved-tattoo-shop-relocate-after-fire-loss?attribution_id=sl:60c46f0a-7e41-4773-909a-2f7d68fe84bc&utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=facebook&sfnsn=mo)

Donate to Help Beloved Tattoo Shop Relocate After Fire Loss, organized by Jim Stoneham Dear Friends and Community, I am writing with heavy hearts to share… Jim Stoneham needs your support for Help Beloved Tattoo Shop Relocate After Fire Loss

The day after the Grafton Court Fire. 😑

Last night a fire broke out in a building in the heart of Longford town centre. The roof was completely destroyed, several businesses are expected to be closed for some time and several apartments have been damaged. Fortunately no one was hurt. Some streets (Grafton Ct and part of Artrum Ct) in the immediate area have been closed (unknown for how long).

A few photos from Sunday (28/07/24).

Unfortunately, Longford Town FC lost again. 😵‍💫
The visitors from Dublin (UCD) proved to be better, winning at the City Calling Stadium 2-1.
This time there weren't many fans, compared to the memorable match against MU few weeks ago, today the stadium was rather empty. 🤷 After 25 matches Longford are last in the table with only 17pkt... 🙄

We will soon have a new restaurant in Longford (Tesco area).☝️ If I'm not mistaken, this will be the first Japanese restaurant in our town. 🤔 Interesting. Anyone fancy some sushi? 🍜😉

PORTLICK, THE PEOPLE'S MILLENIUM FOREST
- travel to a neighboring county ;-)

Quite an interesting mix of landscapes can be found no further than 10 miles from Athlone. From Longford it is a bit longer because you have to travel 38 kilometers, but I assure you that no one will regret it and it is worth it. The road is rather easy, first we have to get to Ballymahon and then driving towards Athlone, before Tubberclair we turn right and follow the local, narrow road, following the brown sign with the words ''PORTLICK''

On site, we are greeted by a small parkring, toilets and an information board from which we can learn that at the turn of the century, in 2000, 16 forests covering 1,500 acres were selected throughout Ireland and the 'People's Millennium Forest' project was created. These forests were dedicated to the Irish nation and 1.3 million young native trees were planted there, one tree from every household in Ireland. Ireland in the old days was one big forest. When the first people began to appear here, these forests were gradually cleared. This project is a kind of compensation for the excessive exploitation, neglect and clearing of native forests that have taken place over the centuries.

Portlick Forest lies on the eastern shore of Lake Ree and is a hazel forest containing oaks, alders, willows, elms, birches, ashes, sea buckthorns, endosperm and holly, among others. As for animals, if we are lucky, we can see a badger, a fox, an ermine or a hedgehog, and goldfinches, treecreepers, sparrowhawks and other birds fly over our heads. It is managed by Coilite and owned by Westmeath County Council.

There are three walking trails for visitors: red (Rinaldoo Walk), yellow (Hazel Walk) and blue (Castle Walk), with a total length of few kilometers. In places the path is winding and heavily forested, in several places you can stray from the course and find yourself on the shore of the lake. The banks are beautifully situated and mostly rocky. We saw all kinds of trees, huge, cavernous and smaller and fancier ones. Some had moss on them and others had branches bent in all directions. Colorful flowers were pleasing to the eye and two wet and playful dogs were running like crazy in different directions. In another place, a little hidden among the vegetation, a young girl was standing and sketching something in her little book, and we were moving slowly, greeting the hikers we met from time to time. 🌲🌿🍃🍀🪵🌳🌳

For people visiting Longford: if anyone has any questions about our town please feel free to go to Longford Tourism. They will definitely help ☝️🙂

OLD DRUMLISH GRAVEYARD
🪦⚰️⛪️🍀

This cemetery was the first cemetery in Drumlish. There was also the first church on its premises, which unfortunately no longer exists except for small ruins. Burial of people began here over 200 years ago, some of these graves are today very neglected, but others are doing quite well and are certainly visited regularly.

The terrain of the cemetery is uneven, it is difficult to find a flat area, there are pits and hills, and the grass is soft under your shoes. Intricately decorated Celtic crosses are illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. Moss and ivy are trying to get into some of the tombstones, some of them are chipped, which means it is impossible to check who is buried there.

Most of them seem to be family tombs, and it is rare to find a single grave. At the back of the cemetery there are unmarked graves of victims of the Great Famine (1846-1848) and in another part the first parish priest in Drumlish - Patrick McKeon (June 14, 1867) - is buried.

Over time, burials in this cemetery were discontinued, the ground turned out to be too shallow and a new cemetery was opened in 1954 in Barragh More (1.5 km away).

ON GRANARD FROM ABOVE
(A short history of the Hill and the Church)

Being on the main street in Granard, at some point you will definitely notice a hill and a church standing on it. We decided to go there right away, see what it looked like from the inside and at the same time take a look at the entire area from above.

Looking at today's Granard we see, among others: the main street of the town, a group of buildings of various sizes, company or enterprise halls. Perhaps not everyone knows, but Granard used to be in a slightly different location. It's known that people lived in these areas already in Neolithic times (3000-1500 BC). The old town existed until 1315, when Edwarde de Bruce completely burned and destroyed it. Of course, the town managed to rebuild itself over time, and on May 5, 1867, near the hill, the Roman Catholic Church (St. Mary's Church) was built. A little later, in 1887, a pointed, 52 m tower, attached to the main body of the Church, rose up.

At the back, after climbing a few stone steps, there is a mysterious, hidden path that will lead us first to the hill and then to the meeting with Saint Patrick - (a large figure was erected in 1932 on the occasion of the 1500th anniversary of the arrival of the patron saint of Ireland to the island). The hill is not accidental, in ancient times people lived here, and people probably built a large hill here even earlier, or more specifically, a mound. On its flat top there was a wooden tower surrounded by a palisade, and this happened in 1199 when the Norman knight Richard de Tuite arrived. Right at the foot of the hill there was a bailey where animals and soldiers were kept, and everything was surrounded by a deep ditch. The whole place was strongly fortified, but this is not surprising because medieval times in Ireland were not usually peaceful and various invasions, charges and hostile attacks occurred very often.

Of course, today there are no remnants of the old times, for those who are not very knowledgeable, it is just an ordinary hill covered with grass. Everyone who goes there will surely enjoy the beautiful panorama of the entire area. From there you can see parts of 9 counties, 5 lakes and definitely closer, Granard is almost under your feet. We go back down, through a metal gate and mini steps, then along a wild, field path we first reach two holy figures, a dark rock and after a while we enter the Church. It's empty and quiet. There are a lot of benches and compared to our Longford Cathedral, St. Mary's Church is a bit of a miniature. Our attention is drawn to the interesting wooden roof, there is a lot of wood here, in general we may like this church. I also like the surrounding areas, they are well-kept and neat. 👌😉

COLORFUL GRANARD

The fifth largest town in County Longford is Granard. Probably the most characteristic place in this town is St. Mary's Church, which has stood proudly on the hill for 157 years. There is also Main Street/N55 and the huge Pat the Baker bread bakery. Worth the risk-free access is the Knights & Conquests Heritage Center, where we will learn about the history of the area and learn about the times when the Normans arrived here. ⚔️⚔️⚔️

On the second Sunday of July in the afternoon, Granard was slightly deserted. The weather certainly could have been unfavorable, with heavy clouds taking over the sky and just waiting to release all their wet contents onto the ground. What immediately caught our eye? Artfully decorated streets, shop windows, grassy squares. Posts, signs, benches and balustrades were wrapped in colorful wool. I must admit that I have never seen anything like this before and I assume it was a remnant of the festival that had been taking place in Granard for the last 2 days. 🌧🌧🌧

Fancy works on one side and other artistic installations located on a small, very grassy hill on the other. We see red, purple and yellow doors and right next to them there are smiling sheep and a hard-working blacksmith with his son. On the other side of the street we have more colorful woolen works. The yellow bees and the impressive butterfly resting on one of the walls are very beautiful.
🐝🦋🌼🌸🌷

A question for the people of Granard: who decorated the town with colorful wool and why? 🤔🙂

This time there was a short trip outside Drumlish. The road that led to the Esker Cross, Corn Hill was visible to the left in the distance, then turned right and continued the journey among local meadows and houses.

It was very peaceful and lovely, the road twisted and there were really nice views. The only thing missing was the weather and maybe something spectacular in the sky. Then photos (even from phone) would be probably better. 🙂 This type of square loop was 7km.

LONGFORD vs MANCHESTER - part 3 😊

On the Manchester United side, Keith Gillespie, very well known to local fans, stood out. In 2011, it was quite a surprise when Longford Town announced that they were acquiring a player with such a big name. Keith played 59 times in the red and black shirt and in the 2012 season he was voted the best player of the season in LTFC. Other big names who came to Longford include Eric Djemba-Djemba (at MU 2003-2005), Lee Sharpe (193 games for MU in 1988-96), Frank Stapleton (223 games for MU and 60 goals and 225 games at Arsenal/75 goals), Neil Blackmore (186 games/1982-1994) or the legendary Andy Cole (195 appearances and 93 goals/1995-2001). The whole thing (as a coach) was managed by Mark Phelan, who was also a former Red Devils player (102 games between 1989 and 1994). Certainly, most fans were keen to see Andy Cole in action and he did appear in the starting eleven, but his appearance lasted only 15 seconds... He started the match and immediately went to the substitution and then to the locker room. A bit of a disappointing situation, but it turned out that the once famous footballer had health problems.

In the second part, the situation on the pitch changed a bit and after a brave chase, the guests from England returned and the match ended in a draw 3:3. From the height of the pitch it was possible to observe that the game was quite sharp and lively at times. Nobody put their foot down and there were emotions until the very end. The malicious could have noticed that the curse of the current Longford Town team had passed on to their older colleagues, because it happened more than once this season that an almost won match ended in a draw or defeat. In this case, however, it was not about the result, the most important thing was that after many years the former stars were reunited, the fans' memories returned and everything took place as part of a great football celebration. After the referee's final whistle, there were numerous autographs, photos and conversations.

It was a wonderful day, everyone present will certainly remember these 2 hours for the rest of their lives. 🙂

Longford Tourism

Was it Tuesday? There was a visit in Drumlish! 🙂 This time I found myself in a peat bog, in a small forest, where the route was muddy and later I saw streets, housing estates and places I already knew. ☝️🙃
Do you know this route among peat bogs and bushes? 🤔

LONGFORD TOWN FC - MANCHESTER UTD
(A Clash of Football Legends 💥)

We participated in a kind of time travel, as if we all got into a time machine and went back to the early 2000s. It was then that Longford Town celebrated its greatest triumphs, winning the Irish Cup (2003, 2004) and the League Cup (2004). I can imagine that similar crowds came to Flancare Park (the then name of the facility) during that golden age.

After passing through the stadium turnstiles, apart from the multitude of people and the larger number of food stands, one thing caught my eye. A real treat for fans were the three cups that MU won in the memorable 1998/99 season - Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup; you could approach and take a souvenir photo. The main stand was buzzing, it was difficult to find a free seat, and there was a large number of young fans gathered at the barriers, looking for photos and autographs.

The game began with the march of two teams accompanied by the sounds of bagpipes and by children. There were smiles, greetings to the fans and then the big game began. As it happens during meetings of former players, the pace was not great, although this does not mean that it was boring and uninteresting. At the beginning, Longford had a clear advantage, attacks were coming constantly and it quickly became 3-0 for De Town. Alan Kirby, Sean Prunty and David O'Sullivan (scorer of 2 goals) played the first violin, the ball was flowing smoothly and the guests couldn't wake up.

Older fans were certainly happy to see former De Town stars: Pat ''Zack'' Hackett, Dessie Barry and Pauric ''Ftzy'' Fitzpatrick in action again. The first one only came out for the initial march, while the last two played their minutes.
(end of the second part/from 3) ;-)


Longford Town Football Club Academy

FOOTBALL FEAST IN LONGFORD
❤️🖤⚽️👹
(Red Devils at Bishopsgate Stadium)

Was this the most important match in the history of Longford Town FC? Probably not, but you can safely treat this match as one of the most important and certainly one that everyone will remember for a long time. There haven't been crowds like last Saturday at Bishopsgate Stadium for long. In normal, unfortunately currently sad times, only a handful of fans, perhaps a few hundred, attend Longford Town's league matches.

So it was a great surprise that this time several thousand fans showed up. The main stand was almost completely full and there were more fans than usual in the remaining stands. Just getting to the stadium took a while, because a lot of cars were parked along the road, at least 1 km from the stadium.

And why did we have a football feast in Longford? This year our club celebrates its 100th Birthday. Therefore, it was decided to give the fans a gift and brought the famous Manchester United to Longford. It's true that these were former legends of the club from Old Trafford, but it's always a lure to appear at the stadium. We also had legends in our team who once represented the red and black colors and everyone was impatiently waiting to see what it would all look like? 🤔
More soon... ;-)
Longford Town Football Club
Manchester United
Longford Tourism

More from Drumlish (recently the most popular place here 😁) This time I found more wild areas - a local peat bog (road towards Newtownforbes). It was quiet, I noticed a sign on a pole (Longford Salt Rooms), cows and very nice views from there. Residents of Drumlish, are there any other interesting places? 🙂
Drumlish Tidy Town's

Do you think Drumlish is boring and there are no interesting places? Well, there are nice and charming places, you just have to look around, go here and there and you will surely find something. ☝️🙂

The sun was very pleasant over Drumlish this evening, although not very warm. Yellow Ball made the landscapes look very nice. The cows looked curiously, water flowed in the stream and pebbles crunched under the foot. ⛅️😉

A BREATH OF HISTORY DURING LONGFORD VINTAGE SHOW

Old cars? Robot man show? A huge tractor? Sunny weather and lots of residents (and others) from Longford? 🤔 We could see all this last Sunday in the Barracks area. ☝️🙂

Everyone can find something for themselves on this day. The men glanced with interest at a row of old tractors or at an interesting machine that was rattling, bouncing and puffing. The youngest rode on a colorful train with Micky Mouse sitting on board. Here and there were stalls with all sorts of things (mainly hobby car accents) and from the entire range of cars, the ones that attracted attention were a yellow racing Mustang, a black Ferrari and an over 90-year-old Triumph. 🚗🚕🚙🚜🚂

Unfortunately, of all these good things, one was bad and was not as good as the others. Let me put it mildly: the hamburgers and hot dogs from the large truck were of very poor quality... You cannot serve half-cold dishes without any additions. I hope that in the future, organizers will do a better job of checking what food is served at their event. 🧐

Apart from that, everything else was good and nice. The show in Longford has a long tradition and I am convinced that next year it will be even more impressive. 👌🙃
Longford Vintage Club Longford Tourism Longford County Council

The second day of the intimate festival in Clondra was not as sunny as Saturday. Clouds gathered, it even rained a little, but people came again to the area of ​​the stone bridge. A large inflatable ball was very popular, and children entered it, trying to catch their balance while balancing on the waters of the canal. Another attraction were pedal boats, on which the youngest took a short trip next to the moored boats. If anyone wanted to, they could go on the back of a trailer pulled by a tractor to a nearby peat bog and learn something about the art of peat extraction. People sat at tables, talked, tasted dishes and cooled down with cold drinks. A man in a yellow T-shirt was playing the guitar and singing, and a few meters next to him a nice lady was collecting registrations for a rubber duck race. The black crow was watching with curious eyes and the brown and white dog was lucky - the ice cream must have tasted delicious! 🐕🍦🥰

A bit of excitement and joy from Parkrun number 337 (25/05/34) which took place in our park. 😃
As always, it was fun, everyone had a good time and even managed to get tired. 🥵🤪 Well done to everyone! 👏 It has to be said - Longford is lucky to have Parkrun. 👌

CLOONDRA HERITAGE FESTIVAL 2024

It was a great two-day stay in lovely, tiny Cloondra. The weather was good (especially on Saturday), people came, there were various attractions for both adults and children, and everyone had a really good time. You could eat something warm, children were hanging around the ice cream stand and glasses of beer were very popular.

The heart of the festival was the Richmond Inn pub and the immediate vicinity of the port. There was a small music stage, benches and tables, and local vendors exhibited various handicrafts. Funny and interesting competitions were organized (e.g. Wellie Throwing), there was an opportunity to meet friends and everyone had a great time.

Have any of you visited Cloondra last weekend? 🙂
Here is some photos from saturday.

From my weekly visit to Drumlish. 🙂
I found a nice white, small house, a walking route and visited two housing estates (in one 8 houses was completely empty). The sky was really dark and heavy and the birds were getting ready to sleep in the treetops. 🚶‍♂️🌫☁️