Tidiest Village’s creamery catches eye
The village’s 90-year-old disused creamery has been developed into an eye-catching attraction, with two large murals painted on the building by local artist Anne Barry, who is a farmer’s daughter from Kenmare, Co Kerry.
Appropriately, they depict cows grazing contentedly beside a cottage, and a milkmaid churning butter in the traditional way.
Traditional 20-gallon milk churns outside the creamery door complete a picture which has not only caught the eyes of passers-by, but brought back memories of previous generations for local residents.
At its peak, the roadside creamery took in the milk of 100 farmers, having been founded in 1914 with investment of £86 in share capital.
The records show that the creamery had a profit for 1952 of £301/16s/6d, and had accumulated retained profits of £1,596/7s/0d. It operated up to about 25 years ago.
The “Ireland’s Tidiest Village” award was well deserved by the hard-working Birdhill Tidy Towns committee, assisted by North Tipperary County Council.
Fittingly, Birdhill has also been nominated to take part in the Ireland’s Best Kept Town 2007 cross-border competition, and has also been nominated to represent Ireland in the 2007 European wide Entente Floral competition.
