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04Mar

Tidy Times – Recruiting!

This is traditionally our quiet time of year. After all, who wants to be out on a winters day picking litter? Actually, quite a few of our hardy volunteers do! You’ll see them out and about on a weekend morning keeping the town clean. But generally speaking, it’s more the time of year for reflecting on what we want to achieve in the year ahead. To this end, we recently had our Annual General Meeting, where we had a large attendance. Gerard McCormick, co-chair of Letterkenny Tidy Towns, said “we were delighted with a few new members to the committee for this year, we are grateful for their commitment”. In addition, a presentation was made to Ann McGowan and Dennis Doyle “for all their dedication, leadership and guidance that they have shown to Letterkenny Tidy Towns for decades. We salute you both”.

Recruiting

In order to continue our work and go from strength to strength, we are always on the look out for new volunteers. We currently have a number of roles advertised on i-vol.ie. To view the roles, go to i-vol.ie and select ‘organisation search’. Then input Letterkenny Tidy Towns, and you will see the available roles. If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in helping us out, please get in touch. Not only is the work fulfilling but you’ll be doing your bit to keep our town as a great place to live in and to visit. There’s also an added bonus for younger volunteers that having a bit of voluntary work on the CV can be a great way to stand out from the other applicants.

As ever, we are looking for volunteers to help out with our Sunday morning litter picks. Volunteers would be assigned an area to focus on. Some people do their own neighbourhood, others will go down to the Market Square on a Sunday and find out from Neil, our coordinator, which particular areas need attention that week. The choice is yours as to how you go about it and as to how often you want to help out. Neil will provide the necessary equipment and guidance, and if you’re turning up on your own he will try to pair you up with someone, to work together on a particular area.

In addition, we are looking for help with our website and social media. The work is not too time consuming but is something which helps us continue our work, in that it helps us to get funding and attract new voilunteers. The roles would be suitable to someone who is already involved in volunteering, or for someone who wishes to get experience in social media. The roles we are looking for help with are Facebook admin, web site administrator, and blog writer. We are also looking for a sustainability officer. This last role involves helping to develop an action plan based on feedback we received at the last Tidy Towns competition. With these roles, it helps to be involved with Tidy Towns already, but is not essential, as plenty of help is available from the committee members.

All these roles can be done in your own time, and none of them should be overly time consuming. The roles are all very fulfilling, and are a great way to spend some of your spare time!

If you would like to know how you can get involved in helping with the Tidy Towns efforts, please visit our website https://www.letterkennytidytowns.com/volunteer or visit https://www.i-vol.ie, select ‘Organisation Search’ and input ‘Letterkenny Tidy Towns’ in the Search bar.

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04Mar

Tidy Times Article – Jan 2022

As mentioned a couple of issues ago, we were delighted to receive a Gold Medal and to be named as tidiest town In Donegal in the recent national Tidy Towns competition. The national organisation sent us extensive feedback on what is going well and also on what could be improved upon, so this month I’d like to go over some of the key points. And also to say a huge “THANKS” to all who contributed. The Tidy Towns committee organise/coordinate a lot of the work going on, but it would all amount to nothing if it wasn’t for the participation of our volunteers.

Community Planning and Involvement

We were commended for the great response we had for the Garden competitions and the photo competition we ran last year, and also for the large growth in the number of volunteers. We currently have over 60 regular volunteers, so thanks very much to all who continue to contribute. Also, our work with youth groups and schools was commended, with various projects involving the scouts, Errigal College, St Eunans College and Loreto Convent.

Streetscape and Public Spaces.

One big positive was our development of the Flight of the Bee mural trail, which in conjunction with the efforts of the Cathedral Quarter group and the A-rt Team continue to make Letterkenny a destination for lovers of street art. In the next year we’ll be working on an app which will help to bring this aspect of Letterkenny to life and help with the development of tourism in the town.

The developments around Church Lane also came in for particular praise, as did the plans for “Letterkenny 2040” which we will hear much more of in the coming months and years. Collaborative efforts with Men’s Shed, the Rotary Club and the Letterkenny Lions were also praised. The adjudicators particularly liked the “Hirelings” statue in Market Square and the Polestar sculpture that makes such a striking introduction to the town.

The committee expressed disappointment at the number of derelict buildings in the town centre, and we will continue to work with the council to bring such buildings to their attention and improve the situation where possible.

Green Spaces and Landscaping.

The flower boxes provided around the town (more than 50,000 plants!), along with the tree planting, were praised by the adjudicators. In 2022 we aim to focus more on tree planting as well as developing biodiversity areas. This can be as simple as allowing an area to grow wild, as for example has happened along the river bank in Ballyboe Park.

Tidiness and Litter Control

Our ongoing focus on litter control was praised, and thanks for this go out to our large group of volunteers as well as the various residents’ associations and sports clubs who work with us to keep the town clean. Also, the Community Employment Scheme and town gardener David Donnelly were commended. Last but not least, a big thankyou goes out to our Junior Litter Warriors.

Residential Streets, Approach Roads and Back Lanes

The efforts involved in improving areas such as the famine garden and Roger’s Burn were praised, in particular the efforts to clear undergrowth and mend/paint fences in various spots. Other areas which were commended were Church Lane, Ard O’Donnell, Glencar Park, the Long Lane and of course the dual carriageway.

A final comment from the adjudicators was “Keep up the good work and we look forward to returning to Letterkenny in 2022.”

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03Sep

The History of Letterkenny Tidy Towns

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

This month I’d like to look back at where we came from and how we got to where we are now.

The foundation of Letterkenny Tidy Towns.

Letterkenny was involved in the Tidy Towns competition right from its inception in 1959. However, by the 1970s, the town was becoming quite badly littered, and a little run down in places. To some, it was known as “Litterkenny”. An RTE documentary in 1975 was very critical of the town, painting it in a very bad light altogether. A lot of residents felt the picture it painted was highly unfair and unduly negative.

By the beginning of the 1980s, the Letterkenny Tidy Towns group had broken down, however as chair of the Chamber of Commerce, Jim McCormick, owner of Magees pharmacy got to work on revitalising the Tidy Towns group. He had no experience of such things, and was unsure of what needed to be done, but he worked with Cllr Jim Lynch, who became Chair, and Dennis Doyle, who was a Tidy Towns judge and offered a lot of advice and later became Vice Chair. As the years went by, Letterkenny Tidy Towns went from strength to strength. After a few years, Jim McCormick took over as Chair. The biggest challenge was the speed at which the town was growing, however the Tidy Towns committee kept working away, culminating in the ‘Tidiest large urban centre’ award in 2007.

Cllr Victor Fisher, Jim McCormick and John Buchanan

Now the work began to take it to the next level, as Letterkenny was a mere 3 points away from winning the overall title. However, Jim didn’t get to see his dream come true, as he sadly died in 2011, at the age of 69. His passing is marked by the Jim McCormick Memorial Garden by the Century cinema, where one of our ‘Flight of the Bee’ murals now takes pride of place.

Ireland’s Tidiest Town.

After the passing of Jim McCormick, the Chair was taken up by Anne McGowan, who continued the hard work. Over the next few years, Letterkenny continued to win numerous medals and awards.

                 

In 2015, after all those years of improvements, Letterkenny won the top prize. One thing that was highlighted by the judges was the landscaping and use of open spaces. At the time, volunteers were out 7 days a week, led by Anne along with Charlie Grant, who is still a leading light (and all-round force of nature) in many of our projects.

Pictured at the SuperValu TidyTowns competition were, Anne McGowan, Chairperson Letterkenny Tidy Towns (centre) with Martin Kelleher, Managing Director, SuperValu (left of centre); and Mr. Alan Kelly, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (right of centre) and members of the Tidy Tows Committee as Letterkenny, Co. Donegal was named best of the 862 towns and villages throughout the country that entered this year’s SuperValu TidyTowns competition.

The last 5 years.

In recent years, our group has continued to work to improve the town under the Co-Cchairs Gerard and Brian McCormick, 2 of Jim McCormick’s sons. Our group has grown, in particular over the last 18 months, and we are involved in newer initiatives such as expanding our internet presence and improving biodiversity while continuing to focus on the same core activities as before.

The volunteer group includes a mixture of people born and bred in Letterkenny plus a growing group from the rest of Europe and all over the world. We’re particularly happy to see a group from the Direct Provision centre helping out regularly. Our volunteers are ably assisted by the CE scheme which operates out of An Grianan Theatre, and together we continue to work to make Letterkenny a highly liveable place and an attractive spot for visitors.

Neil Blockley co-ordinates a group of our volunteers.

I leave you with an example of how our members have always been keen to take every opportunity to improve the town. One year when the St Patrick’s Parade included an elephant. The inhabitants of the Tidy Towns float witnessed the elephant leaving a ‘message’ right in the middle of Main Street. Some might see this as mere animal poo, but our volunteers immediately thought of how great it would be as fertiliser. So after the event, they rushed home to collect a trailer and some shovels to clean up the scene. Only to find that someone else had had the same idea and was already carting off the prized manure. Where some see dirt, others see opportunity!

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04Jul

Garden Competition 2021- NOW CLOSED

We at Letterkenny Tidy Towns ran the 35th Annual Cleaner Community Garden Competition from 4th of July to 31st August 2021 with three categories.

We were delighted to run this Garden Competition for the Best Large Garden, Best Small Garden and Best Wildlife Friendly Garden categories. Each category is dedicated to previous Tidy Town members.  See below for details of the categories.

The competition ran from 4th July to 31st of August 2021.  The entries will now be judged and each category winner will receive a trophy and an Alcorns Gift Voucher.  (Please note that we can only accept entries from Letterkenny and the surrounding townlands.)

The Large Garden competition is known as the Sean Higgins Memorial Award. Adjudication will cover planting, colour including shrubs, grassy areas and flower borders encouraging wild life.

Last year’s ‘Large Garden’ winner from Anne and Charlie.

The Small Garden competition is known as the Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award. Adjudication will cover planting, colour including shrubs, grassy areas, and flower borders encouraging wild life.

Last year’s ‘Small Garden’ winner from Breege.

The Wildlife-friendly Garden competition is known as the May McClintock Memorial Award, sponsored by An Taisce. For examples of what we might be looking for in this category, see the biodiversity section of our website.

Last year’s ‘Wildlife Friendly Garden’ winner from Bronwyn. This category is all about encouraging natural growth to help out the pollinators and give wildlife a home.

THANK YOU TO ALL THE ENTRANTS & BEST OF LUCK!

The Tidytowns Committee.

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