It's the Friday night meetings that count! says Anne

If there was a quirky highlight at the 2022 Cathaoirleach Awards at Belvedere on Friday evening, it was when Anne Naughton stepped up to accept an award on behalf of Multyfarnham Tidy Towns.

The award was one of many that went to hard-working volunteers and volunteer organisations and their teams, but it was Anne’s response that made her stand out.

She barely had time to actually accept the award, she was so eager to speak.

Cllr Frank McDermott and the cathaoirleach, Cllr Frankie Keena, handed it over to Anne and she turned to the mic to say:

“I seriously can’t believe this. This is fantastic. And to be quite honest, can I just say, we’ve just tried to maintain and to keep... to keep everything clean, the village that we have, we’ve kept it tidy and we’ve got great satisfaction out of it.

"But also, I have to tell you girls - we have a very small committee and we work once a month on a Saturday morning, but on the Friday night we go to the pub and discuss what we’re going to do!”

As she finished making those spontaneous remarks, and turned to Cllr McDermott and Cllr Keena for the official photo, Annette Barr-Jordan of Westmeath County Council, who was MC for the evening, jested: “Frank’s looking for an invitation on the Friday night!”

Multyfarnham Tidy Towns say the €4000 awards will be put towards equipment, hardware and the continued maintenance of their village.

Anne pays tribute to the previous committee, Brendan Monaghan, Thelma Greene Sweeney and Barry Leonard.