Sound of hammer and anvil heard no more

One of the most vivid memories Christy Ryan has from his earliest days in Rathmolyon was hearing the distinctive sound of hammer against anvil coming from Tony Harnan's forge in the middle of the village. Christy recalls how the blacksmith's hammer blows, mingled with the horses' hooves coming and going on the main street, generated "a beautiful sound". It's over 30 years ago now since Christy Ryan moved from his native Summerhill to run a shop in Rathmolyon. He married a local girl, Mary Brogan, and felt Rathmolyon was as good a place as any to settle down and start a new life together. Back in the early 1980s, the forge was still in operation yet such traditional workplaces, once part of every Irish village, were by then giving way to a more modern world. The forge is now gone but the skills of the blacksmith are still in demand in the various stables that are located in the Rathmolyon area, including those of trainer Gordon Elliott who won the Aintree Grand National with Silver Birch in 2007. The blacksmithing tradition is maintained in the Rathmolyon area by people such as Anthony Lynch and PJ Harnan, Tony's son, who now lives in a house in the same part of the village where his father's forge once stood. When the Meath Chronicle called to Rathmolyon last week, Christy Ryan had gathered together a group of local people outside his shop in the village; people who, in one way or another, are doing their bit for the community. Present were Teasy Smith, Dorothy Hughes and Angela Keogh from the Rathmolyon Community Group which organises the annual cultural festival every autumm and is engaged in other activies such as putting the preparations in place for the 'Pride of Place' competition. Dorothy Hughes combines her community activities with acting as warden of the local Church of Ireland. The annual cultural festival harks back to a bygone era when grain trashing, butter-making and such crafts were part of everyday life. Along with the South Meath Vintage Club, the festival is aimed at raising funds for local charity. Also among the group that gathered outside Ryan's Foodstore was the chairman of the Senior Citizans Committee, Tom O'Sullivan, and his wife, Peggy. They are currently involved in projects such as the construction of a garden at Church View, Rathmolyon. The objective is to enhance the aesthetic appearance of the village. However, it all takes finance and, in this day and age, that can hard to come by, Tom O'Sullivan adds. There are other challenges facing Rathmolyon, too, including the lost of young people to the area through emigration. Angela Keogh tells a story of how she had heard of one emigrant who walked into a pub in Sydney and thought for a moment he was back home there were so many Meath accents to be heard. "The biggest problem is the lack of industry. We have a great rural community in the farming community, it's very, very strong; there's a great tradition of tillage farming, for example, and horses, but unemployment is a huge problem, and the lack of industry a real issue," says Christy Ryan. Another concern is the crossroads that is at the top end of the village. It's where Christy Ryan says a lot of accidents have taken place. Efforts have been made to try and get Meath County Council to do something about it. Unless corrective measures are taken, he fears there will be a fatality at the cross. Angela Keogh and Teasy Smith wistfully remember growing up in Rathmolyon and the "buzz" around the place with large groups of children mingling and mixing. The laughter of children, coupled with the sounds coming from the blacksmith's forge, were intergral parts of village life back then.