North Mayo is home to a thriving community of avid vintage tractor and engine enthusiasts, who keep a busy social calendar throughout the year.

Founded in 1999, the North Mayo Old Engine and Tractor Club celebrates the beauty and impressive mechanics of vintage vehicles of a bygone era, while also serving as an important social function for its members, who mainly hail from rural parts.

According to the club's assistant treasurer, Michael Durcan, who has been a member of the club since 2001, the club hosts tractor road runs, vintage exhibits, barbeques, and family-friendly outings, including Easter egg hunts and Halloween-themed events.

The club is also a registered charity and raises funds every year for local organisations, with last year's donation awarded to a charity which provides transport to and from hospital, for patients receiving cancer treatment.

"If I wasn't in the club, I wouldn't have ever crossed paths with most of the other members because we're all scattered around a 25-mile radius from Crossmolina, which is where the club is based," Durcan admitted.

According to Durcan, most of the members are in their 50s or 60s, with a few over the age of 85 and even fewer still under the age of 50.

Speaking of the club's subject matter, Durcan likened the enthusiasm for vintage vehicle collections to that of "an addiction".

"A lot of them maybe have machines that are work-in-progress type projects. These things are often ongoing projects, you might go to some event and you see someone selling something that you like, that you just cannot go home without.

"Even though, you certainly don't need it, nor do you have the time or the space for it. But you think to yourself, I'll get around to it someday," he said.

The club will hold their annual dinner dance this Saturday, January 10, at Hiney's Bar in Crossmolina, Co. Mayo, which its organisers have hailed as an unmissable event in the community's social calendar.

Durcan said that 160 people typically attend the dinner dance every year, which consists of a three-course meal, and 2-and-a-half hour live session from a band, which will be accompanied by Sean Brennan this year.

In addition, a raffle will take place on the night with various spot prizes donated from local businesses, up for grabs.

Tickets are charged at€25/person, with organisers insisting that the event is open to everyone, with over half of those in attendance likely to win a prize, such is the reported level of generosity from local tradespeople, Durcan said.

The annual dinner dance is just one of the many events organised by the Mayo North Old Engine and Tractor Club.

The club's annual vintage rally/family fun day, which typically takes place on the third Sunday of every July on the grounds of Enniscoe Country House, in Crossmolina, is the club's biggest attraction, welcoming over 2,000 attendees every year.

A fully-functioning vintage export locomotive takes pride of place at each event, which the club runs on a specially laid, 700m track, offering free rides for all, which, Durcan claimed, goes down a treat with children.