Community ‘spirit’ alive in Mountnugent

Spooky things were happening in Mountnugent last weekend as many creepy creatures were spotted gathering in the town. It is said that three witches were gathering around a pot, chanting their spells while a skeleton sat watching from a bench, wrapped up in his winter clothing, warming his bones.

This is the second year ghouls and ghosts have gathered in the rural Cavan town.

The fantastic display was put together by the local Tidy Towns group who wanted to bring some cheer back to their home village post Covid.

“The Tidy Towns came together and put the creations together for Halloween,” says Tidy Towns member Marina Seligova. “We started last year and we felt after Covid it would be a nice opportunity to do something in our community and brighten up the spirit. It was a fantastic event and a great response from the community so we said we’d do it again this year. “It’s the brainchild of Tara Reilly and Colette Kearney who are incredibly talented but there were other people involved, Imelda Brady and Breifne Moylagh, Freda Maguire and Dan Kearney so there was loads of cutting out and painting, bits and pieces, we all chipped in.”

The town was taken over by pumpkins, graves and bones. Timber boards were transformed into eerie black cats, ghosts and more.

“The cutouts that you see, there were different people that donated the boards, the paint. The pumpkins are locally from Una Darcy who donated. The witches are made from bin bags and different pieces that we had at home, lots of different things that we could find.”

The ghostly decorations have created a fantastic atmosphere in the town, bringing people from far and wide to the area to see the creatures.

“There’s a great buzz in the village every time we do it. People stop and want to talk and they’re excited, it’s a great community spirit.

“It’s great to see people coming together and celebrating what’s one of Ireland’s oldest traditions. Samhain has been celebrated over 2,500 years so it’s important that we put the sign on the cauldron in Irish because that’s really what it is, it’s an old Irish tradition so we want to keep the spirit going.”

The display in Mountnugent gets bigger and better every year, as the volunteers introduce new creepy faces to the town. They're hoping next year's decorations will be bigger and better than ever.

“We added more stuff and hopefully we build up more and more every year.”