'Dirty Old Towns' facelift for Athboy

Filming is currently taking place in Athboy for a new Diarmuid Gavin television series which features the restoration of a town feature by the local community. Yesterday (Tuesday) a pancake stall sale on the main street in the town was recorded by the crew of 'Dirty Old Towns?'. The sale was a fundraiser for the project, the restoration of part of an old stable area so it can be used as the location for a farmers' mart. The project has been ongoing for over a month and it is hoped to be ready for late April or the beginning of May, according top local businessman Padraic Staunton, who is involved in the local community effort. The town was identified by the Diarmuid Gavin team as one which had a strong community spirit and would be interested in taking part in an enhancement project. The site is on front of the old stables, close to the town's heritage garden, and former vocational school. 'Dirty Old Towns?' is a national campaign to give Ireland's dirtiest towns their pride of place back - not with money, not with the government, but with the people living there, according to the production company. "This isn't about stopping people dropping litter; it's about pride, sweat and tears. It's about changing attitudes across the nation as people take back responsibility for their town," they say. An untidy town is bad for tourism, investment and community spirit, they add, saying that the series pits Gavin's vision, leadership and ability to inspire against the dirty habits of a lifetime. Gavin himself visited the town with his team last month, but his original idea of restoring the stableyard as an open air music venue didn't work out as he anticipated. The compromise was another space closeby which will become an farmer's market, with necessary permissions. Charleville in Co Cork, Rathangan in Co Kildare and Rathkeale in Co Limerick are the other towns which will feature in the six-show series. In addition to these regularly featured towns there will be weekend challenges featuring additional locations.