Dander in Bessbrook - Lúnasa Festival 2021

Bessbrook was the first model village in the British Isles. Model as in, this is a good way to do things, you should copy it model; though I think they're missing a trick by not having a village model of the model village. Bessbrook was founded on the Quaker principles of the three P's, no pubs, no pawn shops and no police station. To this day, there are still no pubs within the original village limits. The model was then adopted by the Cadbury family who developed the far more famous model village of Bournville; let's face it chocolate is generally, more appealing than linen.

The village was developed by John Grubb Richardson from 1845 onwards. Richardson was a real trail blazer, who turned it from a small village of only 200 in 1844 to a world renown source of Irish linen. Richardson purchased his mill at a very fortuitous…