Longford reaps the benefits of €1.5m cash bonanza

The finer points of the details which, when totted up neared closer to the €1.5m mark, was unveiled by Rural Affairs Minister Heather Humphreys last Friday.

The Cavan-Monaghan TD was in Longford for an aptly dubbed “whistle stop” tour of the county by setting the seal on half a dozen educational and recreational facilities.

Ms Humphreys also had the honour of officially opening the commemorative celebrations to mark the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Ballinamuck.

The Rural Affairs Minister’s first official engagement came at Moyne Community School, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary, and where in excess of 600 students greeted her to witness the opening of a €240,000 amphitheatre and multi use sports pitch.

The occasion certainly didn’t appear to be lost on the Fine Gael minister as searing heat and a cavalcade of local councillors flanked her .

“It’s always a pleasure to come back,” she revealed as she paused for a breather for an interview with the Leader in Aughnacliffe.

“There is a wonderful, wonderful community spirit here and you can see from the events I am attending, it’s about the local community working with their local councillors and their local oireachtas members and they are all working together and that’s what makes the difference.”

Her presence in the scenic north Longford village brought with it the official opening of a 4.2km walkway around one of the county’s most idyllic civic amenities, Loch Leebeen.

It was a day with little, if any respite for the talkative former Monaghan county councillor as she also turned the sod on the Monaduff to Ballinamuck Trail, opened a new 8-lane running strip at Longford Athletics Club before signing things off by cutting the ribbon on a new community garden in Abbeylara.

The mother of two, like her predecessor, fellow Fine Gael party member, Michael Ring, is no stranger to bringing a ministerial pot of investment on her sojourns to the county.

It was a humorous anecdote Ms Humphreys playfully alluded to as she addressed members of the public in Aughnacliffe and told of how since 2020, in the region of €30m had been ring-fenced by her department for local projects in Longford.

“You now have three walks and you have done very well to get this far,” she jovially told onlookers.

“In 2017 you got €10,000 for the Aughnacliffe Waterfall, then you came back in 2020 for more money when you got another €20,000 for the Aughnacliffe river walk and in 2021 you got another €20,000 for the Aughnacliffe amenity trail enhancement so altogether €270,000 so well done to the boy who filled the forms in.”

Her light-heartedness didn’t end there as she quipped at how her local Fine Gael colleagues had done well to “look after” the area, an undertaking which constituents had the chance to repay at next June’s local elections.

Joking aside, this was a day that certainly seemed to tick more than a few political and societal boxes for the woman tasked with leading rural Ireland’s post pandemic economic renaissance.

“In total, we have invested €30m in Longford since 2020 and that’s a considerable investment, but I can honestly say it’s a good use of taxpayers money and it is reaping the benefits on the ground,” she said.