The fair this year was held all over the village. There was a Fair Day in Old Belvedere, Stars in Your Eyes in Bective Rugby Club and 300 rubber ducks sailed down the Dodder for the duck race.
The community has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Older people are passing away and the young yuppy set buying their houses don't join in. Houses here are going like bingo numbers now and we're losing the old families.
I came to Beech Hill from England 33 years ago with my husband. My mother-in-law is still with us. She's lived in Donnybrook nearly all her life and all her people come from here. When I moved in, I had children ready to start school and that was the ice breaker. There was no playgroup, so three of us started one in the Donnybrook Youth Club. We ran it for years. The village was completely different then. There was a row of small shops where the AIB is now. I remember a beautiful little shoe shop and another that sold everything from a needle to a saucepan. We used to have bus outings, always down to Avoca or Kinnegad and a good sing-song on the way.
The worst problem is the traffic. There is no other way into town and the amount of cars through Donnybrook in the morning is frightening, especially for the old folks. We could do with more crossings. Someone offered me £300,000 for my house in Beech Hill. It has four bedrooms, a 22 ft kitchen and a huge garden, all walled. Where would I go? I can walk to the sea and catch a bus up to the mountains from here. I wouldn't swop Donnybrook for anywhere else.
