Everything Tyrrellspass has on show

Enticing tourists off the motorway to visit their village. That’s what ETHOS (Everything Tyrrellspass Has On Show) and the Tyrrellspass Development Committee are working hard to do. Developing a strong sense of community is also high on their list.

While Tyrrellspass was once a traffic bottleneck, the bypass has meant that drivers now too often whizz by on the M6, missing out on the village’s charm.

Located on the R446 near Mullingar, with around 400 inhabitants, Tyrrellspass has, unlike a lot of other villages, held on to many long-standing businesses and acquired some new ones – positive proof that the community has loyal customers from a wider catchment area.

Traditional shopfronts bear testimony to the presence of the butcher, the draper and the coffee maker. There’s a hardware shop, a pharmacy and a post office, not to mention a golf course, a nursing home and the well-known Tyrrellspass Castle standing sentry at one end.

“Tyrrellspass punches above its weight, definitely,” says Peter Deegan, engineer, farmer and chair of ETHOS.

“It has so much to offer and that’s what we want more people to see.”

I meet representatives of both organisations upstairs in the old world-styled The Grocery, a coffee and craft shop on the main street that was once part of a traditional pub and shop business owned by Peter’s late uncle, John.

“This room, the café, was his bedroom,” says Peter.

“He lived here for 60 years and had no electricity upstairs. The light from the street lamps did the job.”

Peter builds bridges in the UK during the week and serves coffee at the weekends.

Two other members of ETHOS – Niamh Sheridan and Eugene Dunbar – are with him to tell the story of the organisation’s genesis.

“It was Peter’s brainchild really,” says secondary school teacher Niamh. “He approached us in 2013 to see if we were interested in doing something to promote Tyrellspass, and we were.”

“They were handpicked,” Peter laughs. “I’ve learned through my job that you need to pick your team to get a good job done. Niamh is dynamic and an organiser, and Eugene is great when it comes to butterflies, bogs and history – something we are keen to promote.

“We also have David, an accountant, and Deirdre, who has tourism experience, so it’s a strong mix. You need the diverse range of skills.”

Peter Deegan admits to being “a bit of a philanthropist”, but he has a serious business side as well.

“You can be as romantic as you like, but any business has to pay its way to survive,” he says. “More people coming into the village will help the whole economy.”

He lists some of the attractions.

“We’ve got Cloncrow bog and Ardan oak wood, the Craughan man was also found a few miles from here, and there was an old bell-making monastery near where I live, for example, that came to light during the road-building.

“We’ve got all this culture around, not to mention the visual appeal of the place. The green, and overall layout and the architecture of Tyrrellspass have always made it a special place.”

ETHOS began in 2013 by running several walk-and-talk events.

“The bog is my passion really,” says Eugene, also a teacher, who set up the ETHOS blog page.

“We’ve had archaeologists down giving talks about the bogs and the bog bodies. We’ve picnicked on our part of the Eiscir Riada and we’ve run a bus tour for residents to all the important sites. We’ve also had an expert give a talk on the architecture of the village. We were delighted with the response to all those events and we’ll be holding lots more.”

A PICNIC DESTINATION

Louise O’Donovan is a solicitor and a recent blow-in, who is now secretary of the Tyrrellspass Development Committee.

“Tidy Towns and the development committee are interchangeable terms here,” she says.

“Tyrrellspass won the Tidy Towns competition in 1969, two years after the competition started, so there has always been huge awareness of that,” she says.

“We’d love Tyrrellspass to be a picnic destination for people – a chance to break their journey in a beautiful place.

“We’re concentrating on making sure that people know about it. We recently did a review of all tourism literature for the area, for example, and found that Tyrrellspass wasn’t in it at all, so we asked: ‘Why not?’ We will be working to get it included as soon as possible.”

The Development Committee works well with ETHOS, says Louise, and villagers have benefited from its educational events.

The committee uses Tidy Town competition headings like community involvement, landscaping and waste management, to keep it on track, planning wise.

“We reach out to residents too and ask: ‘What do you want your village to be about?’” she says.

Garden project

The next project involves restoring the village’s Victorian garden – something that will take three years.

Community spirit is hugely important, according to publicity officer Sheelagh Connor.

“I love it here,” the London-born resident says. “You wouldn’t get people saying no to helping out.”

I take a stroll around the village with Louise, Sheelagh and Peter Pierson, treasurer and former owner of the now-closed Village Hotel.

“I try to stop these two spending money,” jokes Peter, who lives in the former police station which, like the other houses across the road, retained its original exterior.

The crescent certainly has charm, with its tree-canopied green, church, appealing Imogen Stuart monument and the rib of Georgian houses with their fan-lit door cases and sash windows.

As we cross the road after visiting the landmark St Sinian’s church (the steeple can be seen from the motorway), Sheelagh points out where she lives – in one of the renovated Tudor revival style houses that made up the Protestant orphanage for girls set up by Jane, countess of Belvedere, circa 1840. Westmeath County Council has done a good job of restoring the individual one-storey dwellings without detracting from their original character.

Back in The Grocery, it was time to check out The Barn – a restored shed behind the shop that is now an event and workshop space.

“It’s for all sorts of functions, from weddings to christenings as well as the workshops, like one we have here today,” Peter Deegan says.

“We’ve had everything from yoghurt making to basket weaving to bird-box making to mosaics and lace making,” he says. “The workshops were a tie-in when we decided to sell local produce and crafts in the shop, and we get people from Dublin and Galway coming to take part, which is great.”

Farming is still a big aspect of Peter’s life, however. He and his brother both farm locally.

“I’ve the ideal set up with tillage and whole crops. I supply the grass to my brother’s nearby dairy farm, so it suits us both.”

His sister-in-law, Ann, and niece, Ciara, help out in the café during the weekend.

Peter always likes trying something different, business-wise, he says, and his travels have obviously inspired him.

“I’m building an orangery here,” he says, pointing at an under-renovation hay shed further down.

“It’ll be a glasshouse and an event space in the future.”

His aim is to attract small weddings from Europe.

“I’ve seen small weddings in the likes of Austria where there would be 20 to 60 people. They’d love a space and a village with character like this. That’s been part of the vision that led to the setting up of ETHOS and this place. Hopefully, it will benefit the entire village. It has to be about including everybody.”

TIPS FOR OTHER VILLAGES

FURTHER INFORMATION

www.tyrrellspass.com

www.ethostp.wordpress.com

www.thegrocery.ie

www.westmeathcoco.ie