Ballinahown gets ready for Entente Florale awards

Final preparations are being made in Ballinahown, Co Westmeath before judges of the Entente Florale awards arrive in the village on Saturday.

It is one of 11 participants from across Europe in the prestigious competition. A winner will be announced in Hungary in September.

There are two Irish entrants this year with Carlow town also participating.

The Entente Florale awards scheme aims to promote sustainable development in European towns, cities and villages and to enhance the quality of life of residents.

The phrase ‘it takes a village’ rings particularly true in Ballinahown as everyone in the community is involved.

“It most certainly it does. It takes a village and the whole rural community,” said Chair of Ballinahown Community Development, and artist at the Celtic Roots Studio, Helen Conneely.

With a population of just 75, Ballinahown is likely to be the smallest village in this year’s competition.

“I don’t think there’s a single person that hasn’t done something,” said Ms Conneely.

“We’re in a category which is for under 3,000 people, one of the German villages were saying they had 600 and thought they were small.

“With just 75 people we’re probably the smallest but what’s funny is on our WhatsApp list we have 45 volunteers, so as well as the people that live in the village we serve a wide rural area.”

Ballinahown was invited to represent Ireland following its high levels of achievements in Tidy Towns national competitions over recent years and has been preparing for the competition for three years.

Residents have received support from mentors, experts and Westmeath County Council to meet the criteria for the awards.

Entente Florale has been running since 1975, with the first competition taking place between France and the UK.

Nowadays, it focuses on social and cultural development, and raises awareness of the importance of the green environment to the quality of living in participating communities.

The ethos in Ballinahown has long been about sustainability and climate action, and residents regularly accept donations of unused or end of the line materials from the council and upcycle them.

Seats that were removed from The Strand in Athlone due to ongoing works on the upgrade of the town’s wastewater infrastructure, were donated to the village by the council. They have been upcycled and are being used in the biodiversity park.

The community has a track record of innovation and introducing new systems to the village, county and country.

“We were the first to do an underground recycling system in Ireland using Telemetrics, which was 15 years ago, that is for bottle banks,” said Ms Conneely.

On Saturday, a presentation will be made to judges in the community hall before they visit ten stops in the village to hear from community representatives and experts.

Accomplishments to be presented to the panel include a new walkway through the village away from the busy main road, zero cost solar powered LED lighting on the walkway, traffic calming measures outside the school, rainwater harvesting, and the installation of a history timeline.

The solar-powered pedestrian-activated lighting system is a pilot project and the first of its kind in Co Westmeath.

Everything in the village is done for the benefit of the community, with particular emphasis on the children who live there.

They do lessons at the open Amphitheatre in the biodiversity park, do water testing in the ponds there, one family has bee hives, and the children learn about pollinators.

One of the biggest projects was the sports park’s all-weather pitch which saw an investment of over €500,000.

“There’s not too many national schools that have a full size astroturf at their back door,” said Councillor John Dolan, vice-Chair of Ballinahown Community Development.

Living just outside the village, Cllr Dolan acknowledged how the combination of community effort and local funding has made a huge difference.

“It actually makes me proud. One volunteer told me one of her children said that they’re lucky they have everything they need in the village,” he said.

“It’s great to see a positive story where there is a rural area that is thriving. It has to be said that without both national and local funding, it wouldn’t happen.

“But I suppose if this is an example for other villages to see what can be done, I think that’s probably the big story. We’re not saying we’re great, we’re just doing the best we can with people’s help.”

The community polytunnel is also utilised and children from Ballinahown National School who learn about growing vegetables.

It contains raised beds which were made using second-hand recycled material and filled with donated clay, horse manure and peat-free compost.

Resident and volunteer Kelly Kavanagh grows vegetables in the polytunnel and will present to the judges on Saturday.

“We’ll be explaining what we’re trying to teach the children and what we’re doing for the community as far as providing fresh organic veg and rainwater harvesting.

“We have parsnips, two types of French green bean, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, herbs, lettuce, beet root, kale, chard and cabbage.

“The children from the school come down. We try to teach them about growing their own food and enjoying their own grown food.

“When we have a harvest we put it on our WhatsApp group that there’s several courgettes or cucumbers or whatever is ready for harvest and if anybody wants it, come and get it!” Ms Kavanagh said.

The village playground has also been enhanced with an emphasis on upcycling and brighter colours chosen in consultation with an expert who devised a new colour scheme for the village.

District Clerk of Works for Athlone-Moate Municipal District Bernard Sorohan said he is expecting questions from the judges on maintenance, inspection and safety, as well as on some of the equipment in terms of inclusivity.

“It is a unique playground in that it’s in a natural environment, it’s all grass and trees. It’s not the same as some of the more sterile playgrounds that happen to be in some of the urban areas.

“It’s has a lot of character and offers a bit more to the kids in terms of the experience,” Mr Sorohan said.

At the heart of the community is Rosie’s Village Shop where locals have been chatting to owner Rosie Rohan about the competition.

“It’s great for getting people together, everybody works together to prepare the place and have it looking nice, which we always do anyway for the Tidy Towns,” she said.