Athboy (Irish: Baile Átha Buí, meaning 'town of the yellow ford')[8] is a small agricultural town located in County Meath.

Eoin Roe O'Neill took it in 1643, and six years later Oliver Cromwell camped his army on the Hill of Ward nearby.

Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley placed the fee-simple of the town of Athboy up for public auction in June 1909.

[10] The demesne of the Darnley Estate at Clifton Lodge just outside the town was sold in 1909 to Welsh explorer Mordecai Jones.

Not long after Jones' death in 1913 his Japanese manservant Sanotic Koniste was found murdered in a field not far from Clifton Lodge.

It closed to passengers on 27 January 1947 and to goods traffic on 10 March 1947, but the branch remained open for livestock trains until final closure on 1 September 1954.

[20] On 4 May 2011, Athboy featured on RTÉ's Dirty Old Towns programme, in which the local community came together to convert an old piggery into a Farmers' Market.

The festival, which takes place over the June Bank Holiday weekend, is run by the Meath County executive of Macra na Feirme and invites contestants from all over Ireland and abroad to compete for the title of Blue Jean Country Queen.