Top tips from It Takes A Village

Don’t be codded if you drive through a village in rural Ireland and it seems quiet. It’s only sometimes silent. People are at work and you may be missing the community centre hub that’s off a side road. Go there at school times, in the evenings or at weekends and it’s a different story. A peek at the notice board in the community centre will tell you how many organisations exist in that village. It will also give an insight into how many people are rolling up their sleeves to work for the common good.

Villages with vision? There are lots of them out there. The It Takes A Village series has visited many of them and will continue to do so.

Using the Tidy Towns A and B population categories only (so that apples are compared with apples) and doing some advance research to find out what’s going on where, a visit to the chosen village is then organised, along with interviews with the main people involved in community development.

So, at this stage, what did we find were the most common reasons for people to set out on the road to improvement?

Triggers for development

In Tacumshane, Co Wexford, it was not being able to look at an “eyesore” anymore. They renovated the old school and it has now because a meeting place for the locality. “Putting the heart back in the village” was how they described it.

In other villages it was about wanting jobs for their children when they grow up like in Louisburgh, Co Mayo where women newly settled there saw the tourism potential if everyone worked together. They set up an information and craft hub in the village.

In Clogheen, Co Tipperary, their Santa run and “shop local” voucher system was about keeping money in the locality at Christmas. In Tyrellspass, it was about enticing tourists off the motorway. In places like Knockanore, Ballon and Bunnanaddan it was about developing a great multi-purpose complex.

In Knockatallon, Co Monaghan it was about a lack of accommodation and so they took the giant step of opening a community hotel.

For all, it’s about not waiting for the cavalry to come over the hill. Instead it has been about taking up shovels and spades to stage a community fight back, in some cases against emigration and depopulation, as was said in O’Gonnolloe.

Characteristics of villages with vision

But what are the characteristics of the villages we’ve visited?

One or more serious community drivers, I would say, who see a need and set about tackling it, even if it means signing guarantees for community loans for a project – not a thing to be done lightly.

“He takes time off for the Christmas dinner and then he’s back thinking about what next we can do!”

That’s what I heard in one village. The community drivers usually have lots of skills born of being in business or being parents, coupled with a huge desire to put the place where they live on the map.

They can chair meetings well, get people behind them, sort out conflict – and retain a sense of humour.

In some places the Gathering in 2013 got people started. In others, residents were long-time competitors in the national Tidy Towns competition and this gave them a strong base to develop from.

Volunteering is at the heart of all village improvements, of course.

“If you took the voluntary sector out of Ireland it would be on the rocks” was a common statement.

A good community centre is deemed essential, everyone said. “A hub built by the people for the people” and “we could do nothing until we got it” – those words were echoed frequently.

A person not afraid of filling out forms (ie grant forms) – that’s another characteristic of a thriving village. Most villages have someone who keeps up to date on available grants and works hard at the process of applying.

Generational family involvement is a common thread too – sometimes we’ve come across three generations involved in organising village events, setting good example and creating leaders for the future.

An important aspect of the It Takes A Village series is that it provides tips for villages who would like to make a start on development. Here are a few gleaned so far:

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