The village of Skreen is located on the main Sligo-Ballina Road about 25km (15 miles) from Sligo Town. It held its first
carnival in 1958 under the auspices of Muintir na Tíre, which is a national voluntary organisation dedicated to promoting the process of
community development. The first event last 10 days with dances on 6 of the 10 nights as well as a concert and variety
show which featured legendary puppeteer, Eugene Lambert. At some point in the early 1960's the carnival expanded from 10 days
to 2 weeks and in 1967 they held the Miss Teen Sligo competition in the marquee. As far as we can tell the last of the
"original" Muintir na Tíre carnivals took place in 1979 (see below).

In 1980 a new Festival started called the
Ladies Brae Country Festival which was run by the Skreen Community Development Council (sounds a lot like Muintir na Tíre)
 and we are not sure whether this was just a new name on the event, however, there were no longer any major bands
or a marquee and even though the festival would continue for many years it was really just pub entertainment
with the odd dance held in the local Beltra Hall (which is very small).   .