Moynalty, Co Meath, is gearing up to represent Ireland in the Entente Florale, writes Jane Powers.
The churchyard in the little village of Moynalty, Co Meath, is filled with the sound of a chorus. It's not quite a heavenly host, but it is, you could say, an army of earthly angels. And the army is wielding a cluster of strimmers, varooming and whining in petrol-powered unison. The noise, on this otherwise peaceful evening, of the five machines (and more to come) is impressive.
The men with the motors are all volunteers, and the church (now deconsecrated and re-created as the credit union) occupies a key position in the village. Its old graveyard slopes down to the Borora river and can be seen from afar. It is one of the first things that visitors behold when they arrive on the road from Kells. The band of Moynalty men are cutting a broad apron which will nicely set off the 19th-century church. The rest of the graveyard is being left as a shaggy meadow. The long grass and wild flowers provide a habitat for wildlife, including a colony of newts, who particularly like the lower, marshy corner. Or so I'm told by Michael Ryan, one of the strimming team.
The graveyard gets this haircut treatment every year, but this year is special, as the plot is one which will be inspected by the international jurors from the Entente Florale when they are bussed into the village on July 21st. Moynalty - the village long championed by former Irish Times editor, Douglas Gageby - has been chosen by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government as the village to represent Ireland, while Westport will be doing its duty as the nation's chosen town.
The competition can best be described, explains Luke Griffin, Irish chairman of the Entente jury, as "the European Cup of Tidy Towns". It started off in 1975 as a floral competition between France and Britain, and since then, it has grown into something much larger, concerned with the greening of towns and villages in an ecologically sensitive manner.
This year there are 12 nations competing, and the jurors will be looking not just at the quality of the planting and green spaces, but also whether they relate to the wider landscape. And they'll also be looking for evidence of co-operation between community and local authority. "If you have an open door from town hall to community," says Luke Griffin, "you have a better quality of village, in every way."
Moynalty was chosen to represent Ireland in the Entente because of its squeaky-clean record in the national Tidy Towns competition: it has been the Meath county title winner for nine years in succession.
The model village, which was built in 1820 as part of the Westland estate, will be known to many because of its annual Steam Threshing Festival (to be held on August 8th this year), which brings in around 15,000 people. The festival committee has created a wild-life pond (still a little raw, but give it time) next to their threshing field. The pond is fed by the river, which is skirted by a recently created walk. Wild ducks were re-introduced three seasons ago by (yes, it's true) the Moynalty Gun Club - whose members have agreed to resist taking pot shots at the happy quackers. The name, Moynalty, incidentally, comes from the Irish "Magh nEalta", meaning "the plain of the flocks of birds", so the burgeoning duck population is particularly apposite.
There is an atmosphere of hard work, expectation and great co-operation in this tiny Meath village, whose population numbers only a couple of hundred souls. Window boxes and hanging baskets have been assiduously planted, fed and watered. The stone walls along the bridge are being rebuilt. And the entire village waits with baited breath to see if the fancy new beds designed by two experts from Limoges will fill up and bloom in time for the international jury's visit. The French duo, Pierre Lagedamon and Yan Cerepes (acting head of the Limoges botanic garden), have also been at work in Navan - where their planting on the bridge is splendid.
The final question, Luke Griffin tells me, that the Entente Florale panel asks themselves is "Is this a nice place to live?" Well, as any Moynalty citizen will tell you, it surely is. And let's hope that the jurors can see that too, on July 21st.
DIARY DATES: 13th-24th July: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, Mount Venus Nursery summer stock-clearance sale. All plants reduced by at least 30 per cent. Among the many herbaceous plants are good ranges of arisaema, hosta and hardy geranium (eight different G. phaeum), and delicate species-type daylilies such as Hemerocallis citrina, H. minor and H. lilioasphodelus. Bamboos and many grasses are also on sale, including the red Chionchloa rubra from New Zealand - which featured in the Lord of the Rings movies. Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16 (01-4933813).
17th and 18th July: (Saturday: 10.30 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday: 1-6 p.m.) St Anne's Rose Festival, St Anne's Park, Raheny, Dublin. Nurseries, horticultural societies, crafts, music. Talk by Joan Ussher Sharky on history of St Anne's, Sunday 2 p.m. Guided walks of rose garden, Sunday 3-5 p.m. Free admission and parking.