Status
Status: ActiveThe Longford Westmeath Argentina Society was founded in Mullingar about 1989 and is chaired by Una Byrne. It holds an annual asado at The Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule, timed near Argentina's Friendship Day on 20 July: 29 July 2023, 20 July 2024, Saturday 2 August 2025 with about 130 people, and late July or early August 2026, again with about 130 people and Ambassador Ana Laura Cachaza attending. Emigration from the midlands drew mainly on Westmeath and Longford, and more than 30,000 people are said to have left the area for Argentina over about a century from the 1820s.
The society completed an Argentina Immigration and Oral History Project, funded by the Heritage Council with Longford and Westmeath county councils, whose archives sit in the Westmeath and Longford libraries; the project ended with an event at Mullingar Library where the ambassador gave participants copies of their interviews. A bust of San Martín given in 1966 will go on show at Longford's new county museum, due to open at the end of 2027.
Published sources give different versions. Here is each one with its source, and the wording we use.
The date of the 2025 asado
Saturday 2 August 2025
Source: Westmeath Examiner (3 Aug 2025), 3 August 2025(opens in a new tab)Saturday 26 July 2025
Source: Longford Leader, Longford Westmeath Argentina Society annual asado in Abbeyshrule (search summary; page returned 403), 2025(opens in a new tab)We say: Held in late July or early August 2025
Usually around 1 July 2027; this year's date is not yet announced.
Abbeyshrule
The society's annual asado at The Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule, Co. Longford, on a Saturday near Argentina's Friendship Day (20 July): 29 July 2023, 20 July 2024, 2 August 2025 and late July or early August 2026, with about 130 people and the Argentine ambassador attending.
Sources