Wide variety of events for Sliabh Bán Harvest Festival

The second annual Sliabh Bán Harvest Festival, organised by the Mid-Roscommon Vintage Club, is taking place today Sunday, September 21st.

Following the success of last year’s event an even bigger programme of activities has been lined up for the festival at Lismehy, Strokestown (F42 VN82), in the scenic setting of Sliabh Bán.

It will feature a wide range of traditional and vintage demonstrations including threshing, stone-crushing, a vintage sawmill also blacksmithing, and farriery. Visitors can also enjoy butter-making and boxty-making displays, along with arts and crafts exhibits, food vendors, and auto-jumble stands.

Special attractions include Tom from Donegal with his collection of miniature animals, and Pat from Mayo offering free carriage rides for children with his horse and carriage. There will be competitions such as a sheaf-tossing challenge, other novel events that will add further to the fun as well as a demonstration of traditional haymaking.

The show begins at 12 noon with J.J. Donlon and the Rathcline threshing team threshing a load of oats using a 1945 Ransomes Sims and Jefferies thresher. Built towards the end of the ‘Emergency’, this machine would have been in regular use during the compulsory tillage period. The straw from the threshing will be baled by John Fallon’s vintage Welger square baler that is almost 70-year-old.

Timmy Nolan will demonstrate his century-old stone-crusher, last used by Roscommon County Council in the 1940s and 50s. The crusher was parked for years outside Tulsk village but is now in perfect working order.

Billy Stuart will also show how timber logs were processed into planks using his vintage sawmill.

Adding to the atmosphere, a blacksmith and farrier will give live demonstrations, including horseshoeing. These are especially fitting, as both stone-crushing and blacksmithing were once common sights in the area 70 years ago. In fact, stone was quarried and crushed close to the current festival site, while a blacksmith’s forge once operated a few hundred yards away in Lismehy.

Vintage stationary engines will be on display including Kevin Foley’s national hot-bulb engine, which is over 120 years old. The engine has been restored by its owner and is in perfect working order. Gerry Bratton and Esmond Kelly from Longford will also be there with their unique Lanz ‘Buldog’ tractors. In addition, there will be a display of vintage trucks, cars, motorcycles, machinery, tools and equipment.

This year for the first time a tractor balancing competition will be held. There will be a funfair and lots of attractions for children. With such a variety of attractions, this year’s Sliabh Ban Harvest Festival promises to be a memorable day out for all ages. There will be live music entertainment with Carmel Hackett.

There will be raffle on the day for a first prize of a Honda Dio 50 motorcycle. A donation from the proceeds of the raffle will go to Pieta House.