Belmullet’s spirit shines on Heritage Day

Belmullet Heritage Day is one of the main events of the annual Féile Bhéal an Mhuirthead, centred on celebrating the history, traditions and community of Erris.

Having been to a few heritage days and agricultural shows already this summer, you begin to realise that you know you are in Mayo wherever you go.

There is the green and red everywhere you look, the familiar faces, the music, the flags and, this year in particular, you can see a county that is glowing from their All-Ireland win.

I love that about Mayo. You can go from one end of the county to the other, and there is an unmistakable sense of place.

But when you arrive in Belmullet, you know you are not just in Mayo. You are in Belmullet.

There is a particular pride among the people who live in the town, it has an identity all its own and a sense of community that is hard to miss.

It is a town that sits a little apart from the rest of the county, with Ballina and Castlebar both more than an hours drive away.

There were plenty of views to take in on my drive from Foxford along the N59, with the beautiful scenery unfolding the closer you get to Erris.

It is almost frustrating being the driver and not the passenger, knowing you have to concentrate on the road instead of taking in the landscape.

When I arrived at Heritage Day, there was already a buzz around the town, with people filling the streets, stalls lining the roads and singers and musicians providing the soundtrack to the day.

Following Mayo’s victory, the county seems to have acquired an unofficial playlist for the summer, filled with the songs we first heard sung by the players across the various homecomings.

‘Dog Days Are Over’ and ‘Just the Way You Are’, whose lyrics were given a Mayo twist in tribute to Kobe McDonald, have become familiar additions to the summer festivities setlist.

Naturally, ‘The Green and Red of Mayo’ and ‘To Win Just Once’ are part of the playlist too.

Two weeks on from Mayo’s All-Ireland triumph, Belmullet was still very much in celebration mode on Tuesday.

During the day, I met 85-year-old PJ Langan from Tallagh and his granddaughter Isabelle.

PJ was 10 years old when he watched Mayo win the All-Ireland in 1951 and still remembers the celebrations well. He also recalled a good friend of his, Tom Langan, the Ballycastle man who scored a goal in the final against Meath.

75 years later, PJ was watching another Mayo final, this time with his granddaughter by his side. Isabelle told me they had watched the match together at home, hot whiskeys in hand.

“They were brilliant, they had the whole country alive,” PJ said.

The past two weeks have been quite something in Belmullet. People across Ireland have watched the videos of Sam Maguire being brought to the town and the celebrations that followed through the night, into the early hours of the next morning.

The scenes from that homecoming were hard to miss - a town coming out in full force for the Mayo team and for Ryan O’Donoghue, one of its own.

“We’re a bit of a wild bunch below in Belmullet, but that’s what makes it special. We’re such a tight-knit community,” O’Donoghue said in a recent interview.

That closeness seems to be part of what gives Belmullet’s celebrations their character. When one of their own has something to celebrate, the whole town feels it.

Without comparing homecomings to one another, there is perhaps an unspoken acknowledgement that Belmullet’s was hard to beat.

I asked PJ how he had been celebrating over the past two weeks.

“I was celebrating in the pub,” he told me with a laugh.

On Heritage Day itself, Isabelle said the day was ‘unreal’, as it is every year, but that the ‘Mayo buzz’ had added to the excitement this time around. She also told me how special it was to have her grandad there with her.

As we spoke, it was easy to see why. Isabelle would occasionally glance towards PJ to make sure he had heard the questions I was asking, her hand resting on his shoulder, while PJ would turn towards her from time to time, checking in with her as they chatted to me.

Around them, the streets were closed to traffic and packed with people.

Among the crowds were Michael McLoughlin and Tom Ryan from Newport, who were giving threshing demonstrations throughout the day.

It was actually Rooster, the Jack Russell, who caught my attention first.

He was wandering around the show on his own, saying hello to people and taking in all the sights and sounds. Then, without warning, Rooster ran over to Michael and settled himself down in a trailer full of wheat.

Turns out, Michael was his owner.

He told me that Rooster could disappear for five, 10 or even 30 minutes at a time, but he always comes back.

Michael and Tom were demonstrating a traditional method of separating grain from harvested crops, a practice that was once a familiar part of the farming calendar.

It is people like Michael and Tom who keep traditions alive, giving younger generations a chance to see how things were once done and hopefully sparking an interest in keeping them going.

When the thresher was switched on, straw began pouring from one side of the machine while the separated corn emerged from the other. Before long, a large pile of straw had begun to build.

Children soon made a beeline for it, bundling themselves into the middle of the pile and giggling uncontrollably as they disappeared into the straw.

A crowd had gathered around Michael and Tom, watching as the old machinery rumbled to life and the threshing process unfolded before them.

For a few moments, the old and the new sat side by side - a traditional piece of farming machinery chugging away in the middle of Belmullet, children disappearing into the straw and phones held up to capture the moment.

As the afternoon drew towards a close, Belmullet wasn’t winding down, it was changing gear.

Traders and craftspeople who had spent the day in the town began packing up their stalls, but it was clear the day was far from over.

Outside McDonnell’s Bar, music was playing, pints were in hand, and people were chatting, tapping their feet and dancing along as the evening got underway.

I was only there for the first part of it, but I got the sense that the night could easily have turned into another Belmullet homecoming. I almost wished I could’ve stayed for a drink to see where the evening went.

In the newly infamous words of O'Donoghue: “I think they know where Belmullet is now."

Judging by the way Belmullet celebrates, whether it is welcoming home the Sam Maguire or celebrating its heritage, they certainly do.

“It’s a really special place to be in Belmullet because everyone comes together,” he said.

Heritage Day was a demonstration of exactly that: people coming together to celebrate the traditions, culture and rural way of life that remain such an important part of Erris.

It was a celebration of rural Ireland, but more than that, it was a celebration of the people of Erris.

That sense of community is something that has struck me as this summer’s festival and agricultural show season has gone on.

Craftspeople turn up at different events around the county, travelling from Bonniconlon to Ballina, Belmullet and beyond, bringing their work, skills and passion with them.

They keep rural Ireland visible, showcasing traditional skills, crafts and ways of life to communities across the county.

Behind every one of these days are volunteers. The work that goes into putting on an agricultural show, heritage day or festival is enormous, much of it happening long before the first person walks through the gates. People give their time and energy to put together a day for their community to enjoy.

In a world that is becoming faster, more connected and increasingly lived online, there is something wonderfully simple about gathering in the streets, buying something from a local stall, listening to music, watching old machinery at work, learning about traditions, chatting to neighbours and letting children run around until they are exhausted.

It sounds simple. Perhaps that is exactly why it matters.

From the fields of Bonniconlon to the streets of Belmullet, Mayo is still making space for its heritage, culture, and traditions.