Not short on character or history – those were my first impressions of Drumsna, a south Leitrim village 7km from Carrick-on-Shannon.

Tasteful planning was obvious in the place that dips down and around to an ancient eight-arch bridge in one direction, and to a once-busy harbour in the other.

First stop was the garden centre, where Geraldine Monaghan, chair of the Drumsna Development Association, was ready to act as guide. Near her gate a sign said: “Public herb garden.”

“It’s for the people coming off the boats,” she says. “They can pick what they want for cooking, for free.”

3,000 cruisers a year come to the cul-de-sac harbour, bringing welcome business from April to October.

“Drumsna has a lot of different aspects,” Geraldine says, pointing out the buildings that give the village its character – Jim Gannon’s workshop, the traditional-fronted Duignan’s bar and Taylor’s Pub – once The Ivy Tree Inn where Bianconi coaches stopped and Anthony Trollope, Victorian novelist and pillar-box inventor, wrote his first novel.

Then there is the memorial to Robert Strawbridge, the US Methodist preacher born in Drumsna, as was explorer Thomas Heazle Parke who accompanied Stanley on his Nile expedition of 1887. Dr James Booth, initiator of the public examination system, was born here too.

Is it something in the water, I wonder, as we head for the Community Resource Centre?

This building, unusually for community centres, is tucked into the streetscape and is, not unusually, the village hub.

Everyone I meet there agrees on that – core committee members Sinead Guckian, Josephine Creedon, Ella Gannon, Micheal O’Dowd and Colleen Guckian.

“We couldn’t do much until we got this,” Josephine says. “Now we have a place to hold meetings and bingo. The day care centre is downstairs as well, which is a great resource for our older people. There is a tourist information space and a couple of businesses here, too.”

All acknowledge the role of Colleen’s late husband, Councillor Micheal Guckian, and the development association in getting the then health board to purchase the derelict site and build the centre that opened in 2007.

A lot of restoration work has been done in the village – the before and after pictures on www.drumsna.com bear testimony to that.

“Before the Tidy Towns work started, the village was pretty rough,” treasurer Michael O’Dowd says.

“Trees were planted on both sides of the street back then and we have the benefit of them now, years on. Lighting and footpaths were put in too – our biggest project before the centre.”

“Initially, it would have been about keeping the place tidy,” Sinead, a councillor herself adds, “but during the boom we made a conscious effort to develop the village.”

Drumsna didn’t witness huge development due to the lack of a sewerage scheme in the area.

“We have that now but the association always kept Leitrim County Council aware of our wishes. We would have proposed that any developments be phased in, for example, so that we didn’t get a huge influx of big development that we couldn’t cope with.”

All agree that active citizenship is very important in Drumsna.

“You do it because you love it and because it contributes to making where you live a better place,” Geraldine says.

Everyone present has had a role in the association since it started in the ’90s. All appreciate the help they get from the five Rural Social Scheme workers they share with nearby Jamestown.

“Litter is picked up almost before it’s dropped, which is great, and they keep the village looking so well.”

But is it difficult to come up with fundraising ideas for everything from the new playground and the people’s orchard, planted in 2006, to regular defibrillator training?

“No, we’re bursting with ideas,” PRO Colleen says. “Every time we need a fundraiser, we come up with something.”

“Something” often means creative writing by Colleen. Her pen has put the fun into fundraising many times, and helped win the all-island Pride of Place Award in 2007.

“Everyone in the village dressed up in period costume and told the tale of the village from top to bottom, from butter-making to the history of the bridge,” she says.

It was a winning move.

Locals took to dressing up also for the biannual Trollope Summer School. Village re-enactments of Trollope’s first novel, The McDermotts of Ballycloran, have been captured on DVD too.

A laugh runs around the table at the memory, and of the most recent event – a mock wedding.

Almost €6,000 was raised in one night with the scripted play where guests paid a tenner for the privilege of attending the wedding where many things went awry – and to view the DVD in a mobile cinema afterwards.

The association also came up with a nifty idea for attracting new helpers – a “your village needs you” kind of fridge magnet.

The village Golden Age group also puts on two comedies a year.

“One of our members, Maggie Reilly, will be 100 next February and she has a part too. The brief is that it has to be funny and that everyone is involved,” Ella Gannon says.

Fundraising also involves four draws a year and the Family Fun Day in July.

So, what’s in the pipeline? It’s down to restoring a Dun (doon), they say.

“We’ve the walls of a doon or fort – the Doon of Drumsna – on the outskirts of the village. It’s believed to be the oldest, largest manmade structure in Europe,” Sinead says, “and should be a huge attraction for visitors in the future.”

Yes, I think, before I leave Dromsna or Droim ar snamh (ridge of the swimming place) – this is a country village not short on character, history and inspiring community spirit.