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01Jul

Charity Shops

The following article appeared in the “Tidy Times” column in the Letterkenny Leader on July 1st 2021.

In today’s world we often hear talk of ‘sustainability’. In previous times, an often used phrase was ‘reduce reuse recycle’. Tidy Towns as an organisation is very keen to promote both of these mantras. One great way that we can do our bit is through the use of charity shops. In these days of ‘fast fashion’, buying clothes from a charity shop is one way to save costs while helping to save the planet. Or it might be a place to buy pre-owned books, furniture or just about anything else you could wish for, often in good-as-new condition and always at a very reasonable price. The environment benefits greatly from both reducing the need to manufacture new goods and reducing the need to dispose of the used goods, particularly those which would go to landfill.

Meantime, the donor gets to clear out some space in their home. I once heard someone with a title along the lines of “Clutter consultant” (the mind boggles!) stating that if you don’t use an item of clothing for 6 months, then you don’t need it so chuck it out. I’m not sure I’d quite go that far, but certainly if you have a wardrobe full of clothes that aren’t likely to be worn again, why not have a good old clear-out.

Last but definitely not least, the charity gains some much needed income. Many charities have been seriously struggling for income this last year, and the impact of closing the shops was described as ‘seismic’ by one charity worker. I spoke to Eamonn of Good & New, who explained that the shop had been closed for 40 weeks, but accounts for most of the charity’s income. It was only due to having reserves that they were able to continue to operate, as they get no income at all from Government despite providing a vital service for cancer patients who are referred to Galway.

Without the service Good & New provide, cancer patients and their families would have to make their own way to Galway and find their own accommodation. Aside from the costs this would involve at a time when income may well be impacted negatively, there are also practicalities. For example, people who have radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer need to have 3 litres of liquid ‘on board’ in order for the treatment to be safe. This inevitably results in the need for a lot of pee breaks on the way home. With a specialist bus, stops can be made. With public transport the situation would be impossible to manage.

Some of the literature available at Good & New. “The Toughest Journey” is a fascinating account of the bus ride to Galway, which appeared in the Irish Times.

In Letterkenny we have a range of charity shops. For the most part, they accept donations of clothes, books, CDs, and in some cases they also accept furniture, jewellery bric-a-brac and small electricals. These include:-

  • St Vincent DePaul (Lower Main Street) works to alleviate the impact of poverty on those most in need in our society, caring for the homeless and providing social support to enable people to help themselves.
  • Irish Wheelchair Association (Glencar shopping centre) provide services for people with physical disabilities, including advice, community centres, and support with assisted living, housing, holidays and motoring.
  • NCBI (Upper Main Street) offer services to people affected by sight loss. The advice and assistance they offer can be the difference between becoming isolated versus living a full life.
  • Good & New Charity shop (Port Road) provides free transport to Galway for people requiring cancer treatment, and assists with accommodation. They also offer a drop-in centre to provide advice and support for people affected by cancer and their families.
  • Animals In Need (Lower Main Street) rescue and rehome unwanted, injured and abandoned animals.
  • Universal Books (Church Lane) are not a charity shop, but have an excellent selection of second hand books.

So do take the time to check out your local charity shops, either as a buyer or a donor. You might find something you’d love, or get rid of something you no longer love, and you’ll be benefitting some of the most deserving people in our society.

The NCBI shop

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03Jun

Tidy Times – June edition

The following article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on June 3rd.

It’s great to see the Leader back after these months of lockdown, and here’s hoping that the gradual opening up of society continues onwards and upwards without any major setbacks! Not surprisingly, the lockdown has impacted Tidy Towns in a number of ways, but we have still been active as much as possible. So what have we been up to?

Perhaps the most visible activity is the litter picks. We haven’t been able to meet up, but Neil, our coordinator, has done a sterling job of keeping all our volunteers (who now number more than 50!) equipped to go out in their own family groups / bubbles and clear litter from their local areas. Looking around the town, there’s a real visible improvement, with special kudos going to John Wilkie who almost single-handedly cleaned up the dual carriageway. Quite the mammoth task, and it’s looking so much better! In the coming months, we hope to be able to get back to the Sunday morning meet-ups in the Market Square, and will also be encouraging community groups to “Adopt a road”. That is, a residents’ association would organise a litter pick of their own area with equipment provided by the council, along with assistance to remove bin bags afterwards. Get in touch with us if you would like to know more about this, at lktidy@gmail.com.

Our new volunteers from Writer’s Square set out on a litter pick.

In addition, there have been a number of local projects, mostly co-ordinated by Tidy Towns stalwart Charlie Grant. For example, there was a clean-up of an overgrown area on Long Lane, and there were also clean-ups at the Famine garden and by the Mart. One project which gained a lot of attention was at Roger’s Burn, which is a very fondly remembered site by many people from their Letterkenny childhoods. Here, our volunteers repaired a wooden handrail to make the site more easily accessible. Having visited there myself for the first time recently, I can say it’s a beautiful spot and anything which makes it easier to visit is to be welcomed.

Janus and Neily work on the handrail at Roger’s Burn.

Charlie has also been working with Transition Year students at Errigal college to set up a polytunnel, for use as a resource for both students and the community. In addition, he worked with the TY students to provide flower boxes for the Cathedral Quarter.

In the coming months we will be focussing on sustainability, with emphasis on biodiversity. There are numerous biodiversity sites around the town (Roger’s Burn being a prime example), and we will be working to keep these in good condition and provide information on how people can keep their own areas biodiverse. Other areas of focus will be on cutting down household waste, and in particular food waste, in which areas we will be providing information in the coming months.

Finally for this month, our “Flight of the bee” Mural trail continues to develop. After delays due to Covid restrictions, Karl Porter has been back in action in recent weeks, with the mural at the Jim McCormick Memorial Garden taking shape. The idea of the mural trail is to create a walking route which highlights the importance of bees in the preservation of ecological balance and biodiversity in nature. It is hoped that an app will be created to highlight the trail and to link in with other local attractions such as the Cathedral Quarter and the other murals around the town, thus providing another good reason for people to come and visit our town.

The new mural at the Jim McCormick Memorial Garden.

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14May

The phantom litter picker – John Wilkie Q&A

In what we hope will become a regular feature to get to know our volunteers, we posed a few questions to Tidy Towns volunteer John Wilkie, in order to get to know what makes him tick and what makes him wave a litter grabber in triumph (or in anger!)

1. What makes you laugh the most?

JW – 0ccasionally Sarcasm make me Laugh. Laughter is a hugely underrated activity. l always try to see the funny side to everything. Also, the things people say! – Like ‘oh its yourself’ or ‘I see you in the town today’. I find Fr Ted very Funny, and as a child I loved Monty Python’s flying Circus – very funny.

2. How long have you been involved with Tidy Towns?

JW – I started with the Letterkenny Tidy towns in  2012 – just started cleaning up around my own area, lower Dromore. Also started cleaning along the dual carriageway around that time – me and family members.

3. What do you enjoy about being involved with the Tidy Towns?

JW – l love the freedom of volunteering you can do a few hours when ever you can – it’s just brilliant.

4. Who is your number one hero?

JW – Greta Thunberg the Swedish environmentalist / activist who is know for challenging world Leaders on Climate change – she is amazing for such a young person. Also Sir David Attenborough is amazing.

5. Where is your favourite place to be in nature?

JW – I just Love anywhere there is Trees…Like Carravaddy ,or Ards Forest park. I also like island hopping, going to visit Arranmore ,Tory island ,Cruit island – so beautiful right on our doorstep – please visit sometime.

6. If they were making a movie about your life, what would the theme tune be?

JW – Star Trek – Space, the final frontier, to boldly go where no man has gone before…

7. You are an amazing litter picker, what motivates you to keep on going?

JW – Well!! For me its about giving back to our Community we must all do our we bit for biodiversity and the environment

8. If you were a superhero what special powers would you have?

JW – The phantom Litter Picker. My superpower is my Laser beam eyes that Zaps all rubbish off the face of the Earth.

9. What is the most unusual piece of rubbish you have picked up?

JW – Well I have found some unusual things, such as ….

– Three piece suit

– Arm chair

– Toilet

– Microwave oven

– Deep fat fryer

– 4 tins of Beans

– 12 Cans of Beer

– Bag of Ashes

– Small bag of Cocaine

– Pregnancy Test which was positive

– Dog house

– New pair of Nike runners

Editors note – sounds like the Generation Game conveyor belt gone wrong. Didn’t he do well! Etc Etc…..

10. Do you possess a wig?

JW – Yes i have a Elvis Wig
Thank you very much…huh hu..

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11May

Food Waste

Did you know that 28% of the world’s agricultural land is used to produce food which is wasted? More than half of this food waste comes from industrial and retail sectors, but a significant amount of it comes from households, so we can all do our bit to reduce this waste. Aside from environmental issues, it has been estimated that the average Irish household spends 700 Euros per year on food which ends up in the bin.

The Environmental Protection Agency have produced the website Stop Food Waste, which is full of helpful tips on how to reduce food waste.

The graphic below shows which food items are wasted the most.

So what can we, as householders, do to reduce food waste?

  • Planning – by taking a shopping list, we are less likely to buy on impulse, and are more likely to think about what we are actually likely to eat.
  • Avoid ‘2 for 1’ offers on perishable foods.
  • If cooking more than is likely to be eaten at one sitting, try to cook things which can be stored and reheated another time. For example, most pasta dishes, stews, chillies and curries will taste even better the second time around! Besides, you then have a second meal for half the effort.
  • If you have a compost bin, put all your waste food in there.
  • Get creative with food which might otherwise go to waste. The photos below show a veggie curry side dish I made from veggies that were left in the fridge. Delicious AND cheap.

We will be looking for more of your ideas for using up food which might otherwise go to waste.

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12Mar

Church Lane

Since June 2019, there was been a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Church Lane as funding was secured by Donegal County Council under the Historic Towns Initiative when seven properties on the street were selected for extensive repairs. Contractor John O’Doherty fixed the roofs on all of the buildings, some of which were at the point of collapse. The facade of the buildings was restored using traditional building skills and the fronts were painted with breathable paint. Traditional sash windows were installed along with traditional front doors. Once the scaffolding was removed the true extent of this amazing transformation was revealed.

Work begins inside number 9

The left side of the lane before work began

 

As well as the external works, there was also been extensive work done inside to a number of the buildings. We hope that it won’t too long before these buildings will be fully brought into use for either commercial or residential purposes. No. 4 Church Lane which was not one of the houses involved in the Historic Towns Initiative was recently renovated. The building is now occupied after lying vacant after a number of years.

The living room inside refurbished number 4.

It is not just the buildings that have seen improvement but the Cathedral Quarter has commissioned a number of murals to be erected in the area. In November 2019, a stained-glass mural was unveiled on a narrow strip of wall on Houston House. The mural was a collaboration between UV Arts and LYIT Fashion students from the Department of Design with funding under the Creative Ireland programme.

Launch of stained glass mural, with committee members, LYIT fashion students and UV Arts.

Last year during lockdown, the Cathedral Quarter quarter commissioned Ciaran Dunlevy to recreate the iconic photo from the Lawrence Collection as a mural on the Gable End of No. 2 Church Lane.  This photo taken by Robert French at the turn of the 20th century showed the thatched cottages of the right hand side of the Church Lane with the newly opened St Eunans Cathedral sitting majestically at the top of the Lane. To raise the funds for the mural, we sold blocks of the wall at €100 and the names of the people who contributed are now on a plaque beside the wall with an explanation in both Irish and English of what the mural is about.

Artist Ciaran Dunlevy

The support of the Tidy Towns has been vital to the success of the Cathedral Quarter project and the sponsorship of the flowers every summer has made the area so attractive not just for visitors but locals aw well. A real special mention for Charlie Grant who has been a dynamic force in bringing the appearance of the flowers to the next level. While we had placed flower boxes on the window sills of the buildings, last summer we decided to plant flowers on the top of the wall on the field below the graveyard. With seeds sourced from Claude Monet’s garden in the Northern French town of Giverny, we planted some beautiful Nasturtiums on top of the wall adding more colour as you stroll up or down the Lane.

Charlie and Jim planting Nasturtiums

Flowers at number 2

We are also very grateful to the Transition years of Errigal College who have helped to clean up the area and plant some winter flowers as part of their Gaisce Award. Being an integral part of the Letterkenny Tidy Towns is a tremendous honour for the Cathedral Quarter committee and we are delighted that the ideals of the movement is now being passed onto the next Generation.

Errigal college TY students planting winter flowers

Donnan Harvey

Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter and Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Church Lane as it is today

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25Feb

Biodiversity

The following article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on September 3rd.

One of the focuses for Letterkenny Tidy Towns, and for the national Tidy Towns organisation, is biodiversity. The aim is to encourage pollinators by protecting native hedgerows, encouraging wild flowers to grow, and planting pollen-rich flowers. This is because a third of Ireland’s 99 native bee species are facing extinction, and the knock-on effect of that on our wildlife and plantlife could be devastating. Last year the Tidy Towns National Pollinator Award for Large Town went to Buncrana, so we’re in good company!

There are a number of public sites where we are focussing on biodiversity, but we can all do our bit to help out in our own gardens. Something as simple as letting a small patch of grass grow long, or going easy on the hedge cutting can make a big difference, without necessarily having to look too untidy. As committee member Charlie Grant likes to say ‘There’s no such things as weeds, just plants in the wrong place’. To promote this, we included a ‘Wildlife friendly’ category in our recent garden competition, also known as the May McClintock Memorial Award, kindly sponsored by An Taisce.

Around the town, there are numerous places where biodiversity is being encouraged. On our website, we have a Biodiversity Map, which we are continuously updating – see above. Sites include the Town Park and Ballyboe Park, both of which have small areas which have been set aside to encourage pollinators, along with Sentry Hill where a section of grass is being allowed to grow long.

Another site of interest is the Butterfly Garden beside the tourist office. I for one drove past it for years without even knowing it was there, but it’s a fascinating spot to call in on if you’re passing by. Diverse pollinator-friendly flowers have been planted there, and there is also an insect hotel. There’s certainly plenty of insect activity going on down there!

The butterfly garden

My personal favourite is Ballymacool Town Park. Above the play area, the Nature’s Valley garden has a great variety of pollinator-friendly plants, and up in the woods in the top corner there is a beautiful wildflower meadow, neatly showing that Biodiversity can be either planned or spontaneous. Just take your pick.

Ballymacool Woods

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23Oct

What is Tidy Times About?

The following article appeared in the ‘Tidy Times’ column of the Letterkenny Leader at the start of August.

Hello and welcome to the new regular feature, which I will be writing on behalf of Letterkenny Tidy Towns. Each month I’ll cover some of the things which the Tidy Towns volunteers do, and how you can help out.

This month I will try to answer the question “What exactly do Letterkenny Tidy Towns do?” You may be surprised at the breadth of our initiatives – it’s not just about litter – and I will go into more detail on some of these in future editions of the Letterkenny Leader.

The Letterkenny Tidy Towns team is a group of volunteers whose goal is to greatly improve our sense of community, quality of people’s lives and our local environment.

We believe environmental improvement is a vital part of economic generation. We work hard to make Letterkenny look great – a place where people want to live and visit. So how do we go about it?

Firstly, we represent Letterkenny in the national Tidy Towns Competition. This is not happening this year, but the efforts involved in preparing the town for the competition are all about improving the local environment, and will thus continue.

In a normal year, there would be regular Sunday litter picks, including the ‘adopt a road’ scheme. These are on hold for now, but people all over the town are taking it upon themselves to clean up their own areas, and we help to facilitate this by providing litter grabbers, High Vis jackets, gloves, bags and so on, as well as getting involved ourselves, of course. The Council, with help from Glenard Plant, do a great job of keeping the town clean but they can’t be everywhere, so every piece of litter lifted by a member of the public helps to keep our town beautiful.

{NOTE – since the article went to press, we did get the Sunday litter picks going again, and were delighted by the number of new volunteers who came along (a 7-fold increase of participants compared to this time last year! Thanks so much to all of you). The litter picks are now wound down for the winter and for the level 5 lockdown, however several of us will continue to do individual litter picks, and bags, gloves etc can be provided to anyone else who wishes to clean their local area.}

A fine turn out for a recent Sunday litter pick

The Tidy Towns Committee helps to co-ordinate the work done by the Community Employment Scheme, typically involving weeding, hedge trimming, planting flowerbeds and placing flower boxes.

The Tidy Towns committee is working to encourage biodiversity. See next month’s article for more on this!

The Tidy Towns committee liaises with residents associations, community groups such as Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter, local businesses and the council to highlight the work that needs to be done and to determine the best way to do it. A part of this is the annual Cleaner Community Campaign, where Tidy Towns works with residents associations to facilitate local clean-ups, and local environmental initiatives.

Flower boxes are placed around the town by Tidy Towns

As you will have gathered from the above, some of our ‘normal’ work has been put on hold due to the strange times we’re living in, but we are still very much involved in smaller scale projects, and in encouraging members of the public to get going with their own projects. As an added incentive, we are currently running a garden competition with three categories – small garden, large garden and wildlife encouraging garden. For more details, see our website or our Facebook page.

There are several other ongoing projects, such as cleaning up the Sentry Hill area and looking into improving the murals in Lower Main Street, along with informal litter picks being done by individuals.

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10Oct

Weekly Litter Picks

For the last few weeks, our Sunday litter picks have been back up and running. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in future as we go through the various levels of Covid 19 restrictions, but as long as we are able to do so, we will carry on meeting up at 10.30am at Market Square each week. The number of volunteers tends to range between 4 and 10. Neil, the coordinator, then designates areas for people to take care of, and typically it will be 2 people working a particular area, with 1 on each side of the road. So even in the strictest of lockdown conditions, we hope to be able to keep going, but we shall have to see what the future brings!

Neil organises the volunteers

But enough of this Covid talk, what do the Sunday volunteers get out of it? Annalisa joined us shortly after the Sunday picks restarted, and has become a regular, focusing mostly on Ballyraine and Kiltoy. “I first joined the Letterkenny Tidy Town’s Sunday Litter Pick about six weeks ago after I spotted one of their volunteers out one day and it made me think, what can I do to help? I enjoy walking about the town but it’s always disappointing at times to see so much litter.” Annalisa mentioned a certain energy drink which shall remain nameless, and how she wished it would give the drinkers the energy to find a bin. Couldn’t have put it better myself!

“So, for the hour of your time when you join the Sunday litter picks, you get a great feeling of accomplishment knowing you’re helping the environment and contributing to the community we are fortunate enough to be a part of. I would recommend anyone thinking about becoming a volunteer to just do it! Everyone is lovely, there’s no pressure, and if it’s one hour a year or one hour a week you’re able to give, every little bit helps.”

A typical scene which greets the volunteers. This lot was picked on a short stretch of Lisnennan Hill.

Neil, the coordinator, has been delighted with the growing attendance over the last few weeks, and has been busy planning areas to be covered. In short, there are more areas needing to be cleaned than we currently have volunteers, but we do the best we can with the people available to us, and in the longer term we hope to get estate residents to adopt their own neighbourhoods. Meantime, the areas being covered include Ballyraine, Kiltoy, Lisnennan, Mountain Top, Gortlee, Glencar, Old Town and of course the town centre. Most of these areas are places which the council’s contractors, Glenard Plant, can’t get to very often due to time/resource cconstraints. I hope you have noticed improvements in at least some of these areas, and if you’re looking at an area and thinking ‘hmm that could do with a bit of clean’, then please do get involved. All are welcome!

We also realise that there may be people who would very much like to get involved, but for whom Sunday morning just doesn’t work – maybe you have other commitments or maybe you’d just rather be relaxing on a Sunday morning! We totally understand, and several of our committee members are in total agreement with you. If that sounds like you, but you would still like to get involved, then we can offer help with bags, gloves, high vis jackets and litter grabbers. Either call in on Neil at the Market Square on a Sunday morning, get your stuff and be on your way, or you can get in touch with Gerard McCormick at Magees Pharmacy. Full details are on our website – https://www.letterkennytidytowns.com/volunteer, or message us on our Facebook page.

The above article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on Oct 1st 2020.

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20Sep

Garden Competition Winners

Our 2020 Tidy Towns Garden Competition had a very high standard of entry, and it was a very tough decision to pick winners for the three categories. But decisions had to be made nonetheless, and I hope you will agree that all 3 were very worthy winners! Thanks again to all who entered, you are all doing the town, and yourselves, proud.

The May McClintock Wildlife Friendly Category

This went to Bronwyn of Foxhills. The judge was glowing in his praise of Bronwyn’s garden, pointing out how much thought had gone into the design, and into encouraging a variety of wildlife for all seasons.

 

The Sean Higgins Memorial Award for Large Garden

This goes to Anne and Charlie, for their beautifully kept garden.

 

The Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award  for Small Garden.

The prize goes to Breege at Wolfe Tone Place. This garden attracted a lot of praise from Facebook followers and committee members and is a very worthy winner.

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31Aug

Garden Competition Entries

Here is a sample of the entries we’ve had in our garden competition. We’ve been overwhelmed with the quality of the entries, and it’s going to be really tough making a decision!

Large Garden – Sean Higgins Memorial Award

 

Wildlife Friendly Garden – May McClintock Memorial Award

 

Small Garden – Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award

 

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