Nathan Carter's star turn at Moynalty Threshing on Sunday

All roads lead to Ireland’s tidiest town on Sunday for the 39th Annual Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival, where visitors of every age are guaranteed a day full of entertainment and fun.
The Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival is a celebration of days gone by, of horse and steam power and ancient farming methods. Country living of  past years is uniquely presented and re-enacted in a series of demonstrations and displays.
In the cornfield, six acres of oats will be reaped using the horse drawn reaper and binder and the sheaves will be stooked and brought to the threshing mills in the festival field for threshing.
Here, the exhibition of threshing by steam engines, horse, flail and tractor will be the centrepiece of the afternoon.
Young and old will delight in seeing the mighty engines billowing smoke sky high whilst filling the sacks with oats and clearing the straw.
Those who come to Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival see the social history of rural Ireland unfold before their eyes. The young, the middle aged and the senior citizens alike are educated and re-educated by Moynalty Steam Threshing’s living past.
A major attraction this year will be the performance by country music legend, Nathan Carter, who will give a concert in the festival field, starting at 5pm.
As one of the country’s leading steam threshing and working machines show, the annual Moynalty festival regularly attracts up to 30,000 people and the organisers are hoping that this year again there will be huge crowds at this colourful extravaganza on the banks of the Borora river.
This year Harry Rowntree with his McLaren steam engine will lead a parade through the award winning Moynalty village, followed by vintage tractors and cars.
Vintage displays, farm yard animals, dancing deck and water wheel, arts and crafts area, trading stalls, a 15-class dog show and sideshows all add to the splendid atmosphere that can only be found in Moynalty.
With acres of vintage cars, tractors, horse drawn machinery and stationary engines, the vintage enthusiasts are always well catered for.
There will be fairground amusements, crazy golf, bouncing castles, face painting and lots more activities for children and adults alike.
At the thatched cottage on the hill, many time-honoured crafts and traditions will be demonstrated, churning, butter making, basketry, woodturning, thatching, blacksmithing, harness making and spinning.
Nearby the Dunderry Troupe will perform the 'Mock Wedding’ and you can join the celebrations.
On the hobs, pancakes, brown bread, boxty and colcannon are cooked (Irish style) with samples for eating and buying.
Delicious roast pig can be sampled here also. The purpose built museum houses a vast display of agricultural antiquities and should not be missed.
One of the hottest names in Irish country music, Nathan Carter will be a major attraction at the 39th Annual Moynalty Steam Threshing.  He will play live in the Threshing field from 5.30pm to 7.15pm in a gig that is expected to cause huge excitement at the festival.
Gates open from 10am. Admission is €10, while children under 12 are free.
The €10 admission includes the Nathan Carter Concert. There are acres of free car parking nearby to the festival field. 
No visit to the threshing festival would be complete without taking a look around the enchanting estate village of Moynalty, laid down in the 1820s by the Farrell landlord family.  Around the threshing field lies a wonderful riverside walk, which extends 0.75km up to the rise at Donore Rath, where there is a fine view of the surrounding north Meath countryside, as far as the nearby Cavan border.
To visit Tidy Towns winning Moynalty is to feel yourself drawn back over a century, thanks to the superb restoration work undertaken on local walls and houses.  The humble beginnings of this legendary steam threshing event in 1976 have been substantially expanded down the decades to make this event now one of the leading festivals of its kind. 
Moynalty is certainly the place to be on Sunday, where there will be entertainment for all, thanks to the dedicated voluntary efforts of the local community.

For those seeking directions to Moynalty, the sat-nav co-ordinates are: N53, 47, 229 or W00653303. Further information is available from Peter at (087) 239 3342 . See www.moynaltysteamthreshing.ie