Tidy towns Newsletter Clonmellon Spring /Summer Edition 2021

Since Covid 19 came to our shore just over 18 months now, our country has been in and out of lockdown. A project that our local community council started as a Farmers Market which is held every second Sunday of the month in our local Market Square. This is a great success as it gave an outlet in a safe and secure setting for families to walk around and to help the local business to survive. A lot of work goes into organizing these types of events and the committee did a great job.

Tidy towns work never stops whether it’s cleaning our main streets or side streets or looking for new ideas to enhance our village.

Work continued in the local community garden preparing plants for the hanging baskets, plant boxes and the making of new plant holders. We painted the old hardware store shutter and finished the well. The hanging baskets poles got painted and we put on new basket hangers to lower the baskets for easier watering. Over the winter months, we raised funds to purchase new equipment and a big thank you to all who supported us. We Look forward to this year’s entry to the competition as always it’s very challenging and we thank all who give their time to help create a pleasant environment not only for the people of the village but for all who come to visit and pass through it.

Happy Birthday Farmers Market.

Well done to Clonmellon Community Council for starting this market. They celebrated their first year. The Market has grown over the last year. As you can see there are lots of stalls with so many products from sellers both local and from the surrounding areas. Well done to everyone involved it’s great to see the big support from the community and the business sector.

Well:

This was a project that we started last year and what a great job. A few people had a hand in this project, John Sheridan who collected the fieldstone over a couple of weeks, Fergus Corrigan stone cutter and carver and Brendan Leavy Carpenter. A great piece of work done by everyone. Over the last couple of years, a lot of work went into cleaning up this area as you will notice as you enter the village from the approach road from kells.

Community Garden:

We are very proud of our garden and of the people who run it as they take great pride in what they do. We now have 2 tunnels and this is a big improvement to the garden as it widens the scope as to what we can grow. A big thank you to Eamonn for all the hard work he did in making the shelving for the tunnel and new plant holders for the cemetery. We have to thank young Robert for taking the time to paint the back wall and for the great job he did. The wood used for all the projects is reclaimed and this goes to show that the garden looks at the environment as a whole.

Hanging Basket poles:

We painted the poles and we put up new brackets to lower the baskets for easier watering. Again I would like to thank the community garden for providing flowers for all areas of the village, a special thank you to Agnes for all her help.

A special project Killua Cemetery:

Just a small bit of history about this cemetery. The original church dates to at least the 7th century and was either founded by St. Dalua of Tibradden or named in his honour. St. Dalua is mentioned in the Book of Armagh as a companion of St. Patrick. Later in the middle Ages, there is documentary evidence that Walter de Lacy donated the church and its surrounding lands to Lanthony Abbey in Wales. The Welsh Augustinian monks dedicated the church to St. John the Baptist. The Church was still in operation in the late 15th century and probably disappeared only after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Three centuries later, the Chapman’s used stone from the medieval church to erect a folly that would resemble a ruined cathedral and that could be seen from Killua.

A couple of weeks ago a group of us started to clean up this very historic Cemetery. This is a long term project and we have some plans to highlight this work as we go along. I would like to thank Steven, James and Eamonn for all their help and hard work to get this project started.

If you would be interested in taking part in this project please contact us by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Pollinator Competition.

For the last couple of years, we have been working digging and planting new flower beds around various locations in the village. We planted wildflowers around the trees in the village some came up and some did not but we can build on this as we go along always room for improvement. If you are interested in taken part please have a look at your surroundings and see where you can plant pollinator-friendly flowers it does not have to be big just enough to help promote and sustain pollination.

Local News:

The Clonmellon Men’s Shed will be back very soon. With the help of the ( IMSA ) Irish Men’s Shed Association, they have received a end of life portacabin to help them reopen. We had some artwork done; we painted the shutter on the old hardware store and some work done on the bollards at the Clonmellon Arms thanks to Simon who did great work. There was some house renovation taken place and some houses were painted. We put up a new heritage sign outside Market Square. This was done with the input of the heritage department and the sponsors of this were Allen and Lorena Krause.

We took some photos of the lovely gardens in and around our village, it’s great to see how much time and energy people put into the upkeep of their gardens. The Cafe in the market square had some lovely flower boxes made and they look great, the work was done by the Clonmellon Men’s Shed and we look forward to when they are back up and running in the near future. The playground had some repair work done to it over the last couple of months. This is a lovely place where our young children can come and play and mix with their friends so please let’s all try and keep this in good condition. We have to thank the Westmeath County Council for their commitment to providing a place where all our young children can come and have fun.

Painting and Renovation of Houses:

Over the last couple of months, a lot of work has taken place on some houses around our village. And some wonderful work was carried out as you can see from some of the photos. It’s great to see this type of work been done as it helps improve the look of the village and surrounding areas.

Clonmellon Streetscape Painting Scheme.

A couple of weeks ago the Clonmellon Community Council announce the commencement of the above project. The Contract went to (Brothers of the Brush) who are based in Delvin. A painting consultant (Shelly Lodge) was hired to produce a colour pallet and the participating residents chose a colour that they would like. A lot of work went into getting this project started and it is funded by the Town and Village Renewal Scheme in conjunction with the DEP, of Rural and Community Development and Westmeath County Council.

As always we would like to thank all who help in all the small ways that they do. Just a note about committees. As you know tidy towns work is all about outdoors with some office work, other committees do more work in the office side of things with emails and meeting people to get projects done so just because you do not see them out and about remember that they are working on your behalf in other ways.

Clonmellon.com would like to thank John Wilson and Toss Henry for all the great work they do.,