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De Facto The flowers are in bloom and there are more judges in Westport than tourists.
Pride of place to a community in bloom
De Facto Liamy MacNally
It is the last week of summer and the traffic is backing up. The flowers are in bloom and there are more judges around the town than tourists. The doyens of the Community in Bloom competition, Pride of Place and Tidy Towns have already visited. The Tidy Towns adjudicators are ever ready for a return visit, once more unto the streets! It is hard not to be impressed by how the town is looking. The grass verges are standing to attention while the flowers are all dolled up in their expensive make-up. Trees line out in parade, chins in and chests out, their careful leaves blowing gently in the breeze. Locals are enjoying the show! The only frustration is felt behind the wheel with the tailbacks heading out the Castlebar Road, rising and dipping in slow motion as they edge their way to town. Many of us who join this sacred queue curse those thoughtless lights at the junction with the Distillery Road, the town’s sentinels of delay. Westport town councillors have the traffic issue back on the agenda. The proverbial workshop will be held, issues debated and an agenda drawn up. Action will then be taken. Last week’s Council meeting was a serious declaration of intent.
MUSIC FESTIVAL Traffic was diverted away from the Fairgreen area and South Mall last week because of the music festival. The earlier start to the concerts was beneficial to families, enabling all ages to attend. While the baby boomers enjoyed the music, the boob-tubers paraded as daintily as their high-heeled, long-legged supported mini-skirt ‘suggestions’ would allow. It was like a walk down hormone valley. Waiting in the wings, swigging on the cans of bravery, young lads watched as testosterone temperatures teetered on the brink. Mobile phones shrilled in time with the music, lighting up at the joy of text. Plain-clothes publicans mixed among the crowd and came out openly to pick up litter after the concerts. The night was still young. No glass allowed in the concert area. One could only sup from the depths of recyclable plastic cups or tin. What is important is that a feat of the magnitude of the music festival can take place at all. It takes people power. Finding the balance that it needs to allow it to bed in as a family event might take a few more attempts but is worth pursuing. The earlier start time for the concerts is a major plus. Whether this will push more people into the pubs to drink longer, especially with bar exemptions, will emerge with hindsight. Achieving the balance of a carnival atmosphere is a worthwhile goal. Nobody wants to see the festival descend to where families are forced to walk the plank into a sea of drunkenness and foul-mouth fury. The number of people the festival attracts can only be a boost, especially for hotels and B&Bs. Many B&Bs have been badly affected with visitor numbers dropping drastically. It is not too long ago that there was not a bed available in the town in July. Now, any visitor has a choice. Some owners would say that the season has died before it is born. Many hotels are doing well, especially those with add-on features like pools and spas.
COVIE WEEK Rising from the ashes of the visiting judges and music festival is Covie Week. It gives pride of place to a community in bloom. Many Covie visitors have already arrived, much to the delight of those who say that tourist numbers are down. Some get a kick out of being labelled a tourist in their home town! There are also some ‘strays’. The Cavan boy who married a Covie has arrived, all geared up for talk! Memories will quiver as old friends meet doing a lap, remarking on the beauty of the town. Every event will bring its own little moment of magic. Surprised by joy!
MUSICAL HERITAGE Freckled Donal MacNamara will be in Matt Molloy’s on Friday evening sitting comfortably ‘ag windáil’ alongside Charlie Keating who will sing him back to life on the south wind. Charlie’s new CD, ‘Croagh Patrick’, will be launched on Garland Friday, the day the Covies climb the Reek. Gieve Heraty’s great poem about Mickey Palmer, ‘The Lone Wolf’ has found grace notes, courtesy of Charlie. “I don’t know who Gieve is or was,” Charlie will declare. He will know on Friday. Joe Mc Nally will tell him as he proudly launches Charlie’s CD. A smile will tear its way across Charlie when he hears the gentle footsteps of Gieve march in time in Covieland. Charlie has already paid Gieve a wonderful compliment by putting music to his words. No doubt Gieve will break into a celestial smile as he looks over at Amy. Peace, perfect peace. The rich veins of Croagh Patrick will pulse with life as Charlie sings ‘Cruachán Aigle’ on Garland Friday. He will recall the golden days of battle before stretching out on The Green Fields of Mayo. The wonder of the Cork songwriter, John Spillane, is shrouded over Charlie’s song, ‘My First Friend’. Inspiration, support and encouragement mean a lot. It costs nothing to be nice. John Spillane has that gift in aces. Charlie plays the trump card, Tarzan.Charlie will swim among the waves of Clew Bay as he pays homage to those who died in the ‘Clew Bay Disaster’. Inishbofin’s Thomas Lavelle’s 17th century song, ‘Contae Mhuigh Eo’, will blossom into life as Béarla, a precursor to Úna Quinn’s talk on Saturday night in the Wyatt. She will dance between the languages, unravelling the wonders of native speak, still alive but for many people buried under the topsoil of shyness. Any one person celebrating our music and language is a communal act because it makes present again all those who are remembered or acknowledged by that person. Then there is Joe Byrne, a verbal traffic-free flow, with fifes and drums!
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