Families get together at Ashbourne Fun Day

The 16th annual 'Family Funday Sunday" took place in Ashbourne recently, attracting crowds of more than 700 to the Ashbourne Community Centre grounds. This annual event is always well-supported with long-established residents and people new to the area alike turning out in force. The sun shone throughout the day, much to the delight of the adults and children present, who enjoyed the many activies, which included pony rides, pillow fights, penalty shoot-out competitions and sack races. The event has been organised by Cllr Joe Bonner in conjunction with Ashbourne Community Council for the past 16 years. He was delighted with the large crowds and was pleased to see youngsters who attended the first such event 16 years ago turning up at this year"s funday with their own children. The event gives the older and newer communities in the area a chance to get to know each other. The various clubs and organisations in the town organise the many events. Cllr Bonner explained that when the event first started, Ashbourne Community Centre was catering for lots of different groups and this had been one way of getting them to come together. Among those invovled in the recent funday were the local GAA, soccer and athletic clubs. Cllr Bonner paid tribute to all the volunteers and helpers who helped make the day such a success. Among the events were pony rides, courtesy of the Broadmeadow Equestrian Centre, a sheaf-throwing competition which attracted a large entry, tossing the wellie and a washing line competition which saw participants competing to see who could hang out the most washing in a fixed period! There was a pillow fight competition, which proved extremely popular, a horseshoe-throwing contest, sack races, egg and spoon races and three-legged races. Mums and dads were encouraged to compete in a variety of races and there was also a very exciting penalty shoot-out competition.