Take me to the Hilltop! Brilliant weekend in store as north Longford welcomes tractors and roses
Hilltop Weekend in north Longford: Aughnacliffe events are being held in aid of Beaumont Hospital
Locals are expected in large numbers at the Hilltop Tractor Run at Cleenrath, Aughnacliffe next Sunday in aid of Beaumont Hospital, which is part of a series of May Bank Holiday events.
Norman Hall, who purchased the premises in late-2024, will also be hosting the 'Alternative Hilltop Rose', a charity auction and live music from two popular local bands.
The publican and a local committee organised the Hilltop Festival in 2025 and he said they made some changes this year.
Norman stated he has been involved in fundraising events for at least 15 years.
"I used to hold [the tractor run) there at Creegans Pub in Bunlahy.
"This is the first year holding a tractor run here, last year we did it a bit different, it was sort of a festival with music and we changed it around a bit.
"It's for Beaumont Hospital, they did a lot of good around us there locally at home so we decided to give it to them this year.”
Norman said registration for the Tractor Run will commence at 12-noon and the vehicles will pull off to begin the event at 1pm.
He stated there will be other festival attractions this year
"On Saturday night we have our Alternative Rose, which is based on the Rose of Tralee."
Norman said the 10 ladies will be representing 10 local pubs and he is expecting it to be an entertaining event with plenty of support for the contestants.
He stated they wanted to recognise the great work being done by the hospital to support members of the local community.
"The reason we are going with Beaumont this year is they gave a lot of help to the local community in the last 12-to-14 months.
"There will definitely be a lot of local support.
"We spread the wings by getting different pubs in villages and towns around us involved as well to try and get it up a bit.
"Because if you have 10 roses and you have 20 people coming to follow the different roses from different pubs you're going to have 200 people there anyways without anything else."
Norman said they have some talented musical acts lined up with Impulse Music kicking off proceedings and then The Rurals playing afterwards on Sunday night.