"You need something to bring people together"

Organise events that involve families, because magic happens around that.”

If you live in a village where you’d love to develop a greater sense of community, then this is a great tip from the hard-working residents of Julianstown, Co Meath. They have been organising family focused events for years – for example tree and bulb planting, creating a three-acre village garden on a derelict site, decorating approach roads on a seasonal basis, staging local history plays and talks, and holding summer and Halloween festivals. Not to mention the latest big event coming up: Santa and Mrs Claus’ visit to the village.

This will see the Christmas couple arrive via vintage tractor and trailer on 11 December and carol singing for the 600+ adults and children converging at the Lime Kiln pub car park.

Overall, when thinking about the work of Julianstown Development and Community Association and their many helpers, think colour, creativity and conviviality.

Holding events that involve families is a key move, chairperson Niamh Ui Loingsigh and committee members Emer Dolphin and Leo Monahan say.

“You need something to bring people together, because if people don’t talk nothing gets done,” says Leo.

“It’s all about people meeting and getting to know one another rather than just fundraising,” says Niamh.

“If it’s family orientated, people just flock to anything you run,” says Emer.

Meeting the core committee of 15 around a parish hall table in October, it was easy to be impressed by the work done and their future plans, which includes doing their best to resolve a few challenges.

From the get-go, having a village design statement was a big help, Niamh says. Julianstown was the 2010 national pilot in the Heritage Council’s Village Design Statement programme.

“Every village should have one,” she says. “It means that you know what you have and what you want to achieve.”

While there are some challenges right now, the village positives deserve recording first.

Ask people why they settled here and they’ll tell you how it ticked lots of boxes – central location, a great place to bring up children, the charm of a bridge, river and Swiss cottages, the varied landscape of country lanes, farmland and sea, good schools in Laytown and Drogheda, great bus services and Dublin Airport only 20 minutes away. The list went on and included the people.

“What’s more important in any place than the people?” Leo Monahan asks.

The village garden has been a real community bonding force, everyone agrees. Children played on hay bales while parents worked clearing the site and planting with everyone, chatting over tea breaks. Even now the positive impact continues, with Algerian residents in nearby Mosney’s direct provision centre coming out regularly to help too.

Can’t hear themselves think

There are a few boxes that inhabitants of Julianstown would dearly love to untick, however, and are looking to Meath County Council to help immediately on both fronts.

One is traffic – 23,000 vehicles a day go through the village, with a 100% growth in traffic since 2013. Locals speak of not being able to hold a conversation on the street because of it.

With Julianstown being so close to Dublin and because its main street used to be the main Dublin to Belfast road, traffic continues to be heavy here, but is the increase due to motorway toll avoidance?

No, the chairperson says.

“The main people going through are people from the coast – from Bettystown, Laytown and south Drogheda. None of those are going to drive 10 miles to get onto the motorway.”

Emer Dolphin points out that for one month, as an experiment, tolls weren’t charged, but this made no difference to the traffic levels in Julianstown.

The village design statement is mentioned again in this context.

“One of the things proposed is to turn the road into a street. That’s because we have no street where people can meet.”

At present they are awaiting traffic calming measures (promised for January 2019), but the main street being a main road is a huge issue.

Niamh Ni Loingsigh sums it up.

“We have plenty of heart,” she says, “but no centre.”

The traffic problems and the lack of a centre seem to spring from the actual shape of the village too.

“It’s the physicality of the village that’s the problem,” Clare McEneany explains. “We have a river and two hills descending down to a bridge and everyone is funneled into that. It creates a bottleneck.”

It was noted in the village design statement that there is nobody actually living in the core of the village.

“Although you physically drive down into it, nobody lives there. That’s why the Old Mill is so important.”

The contentious Old Mill is a former hotel that has been closed for several years. While the building is up for sale and the community has helped the owners with a clean-up, locals are still less than happy with Meath County Council on this score.

“It’s an eye sore and a health hazard and if it was improved the village would be too,” they say.

Their regular newsletter even carries a plea for investor interest.

Planning and infratructure

Planning permission along the east coast – too much of it being granted – is also mentioned, along with concern that the infrastructure isn’t there to support it and Julianstown continually bearing the brunt of the extra traffic.

Lack of tourism signage is another concern.

“We need east Meath and Ireland’s Ancient East to be publicised as much as the Wild Atlantic Way,” they say.

In the meantime life goes on in a community where a play about the Battle of Julianstown in 1641 has just been performed, where organisations like Active Aged and Meals on Wheels continue their good work, and where history talks and projects like Go Wild in the Woods encourage old and young alike to cherish the area that they live in.