Midsummer newsletter – July 2019 – Skibbereen Tidy Towns

by Skibbereen Tidy Towns

Midsummer has come and gone, the Tidy Towns national competition adjudicator has probably come and gone at this stage (we’ll find out in September!), St. Swithin’s day has just gone, and as the legend goes, if it rains on this day it will rain for 40 days. True enough, it did rain on Monday, 15 July, and at the time of writing (Sunday, 28 July) we haven’t had an entirely dry day in Skibbereen since!

As is the case with Tidy Towns groups we have been incredibly busy over the past few months and while we cannot summarise all the projects we’ve been working on since our April newsletter that focused on National Spring Clean Month here’s a look back at some major accomplishments thanks to a dedicated bunch of volunteers, partners and supporters:

Over a number of Saturday mornings starting in mid-April, the Mardyke Pollinator Corridor project plan was executed. Inspired by the garden of St. Patrick’s BNS in Skibbereen we built and installed a bug hotel in a wildlife oasis at the junction of Railway Road (the cutting) and Mardyke Street, partnered with Skibbereen Geriatric Society to plant a trio of pollinator friendly trees in the front garden of Mardyke Court and established the little park at the front of Coaction as a pollinator area. The competition category Nature & Biodiversity has been a key focus area for us this year and we hope to gain a little extra on last year’s mark in addition to providing such a wonderful resource to the community.
Just before the end of the school year for the summer holidays (and the Tidy Towns judging year at the end of May) we were fortunate enough to finalise another key wildlife project jointly with the 4th class boys (now 5th class) of St. Patrick’s. Over the winter we dried out seeds saved in the autumn from the silver birch beds along Mill Road adjacent to the children’s playground. These seeds were then sown by St. Patrick’s and nurtured in their geodome while Tidy Towns volunteers prepared a plot to develop as an ARK (Act of Restorative Kindness) at the Mill Road cul de sac.
In May we officially launched the HANNAH principles and distributed copies of the poster to all schools and businesses in the town to encourage sustainability in our daily habits to ‘do more with less’.
The annual Cork County Council Anti-Litter Challenge took place in May and June with ‘challenge’ being the key word. Between our volunteers and the Cork County Council staff we did our best but for the first two judging periods we could achieve no better than 5th place in our category. Cigarette butts in particular are a major problem and more needs to be done in this regard going forward (more bins is not necessarily the answer). The results of the third judging period are withheld until the winners are announced in September at an event in County Hall. Barring major catastrophe, our neighbours in Dunmanway look set to win and if we cannot do well ourselves we will be very happy if a West Cork town takes the crown.
In June we were delighted to have Donna, a volunteer with Cork Nature Network come and speak about biodiversity and wildlife at an open event in St. Patrick’s BNS followed by a stroll through the award winning garden. This event gave rise to an opportunity to partner with CNN on a grant application for a joint community biodiversity plan for Skibbereen. We are very excited about this project and are keeping our fingers crossed that our application will be successful. Have a look at the Wild about Ennis initiative for some ideas.
In July two of Skibbereen’s three roundabouts at Baltimore Road and Cork Road, got a makeover, with planting sponsored by Skibbereen Garden Centre and Lidl respectively. Special thanks also to Cian O’Brien who does a meticulous job at maintaining the grassed sections of the Cork Road and Schull Road roundabouts – check out his YouTube video here.
Southern Star, 27 July 2019

Also on a Saturday morning in July, while Jerome and Eileen were weeding and sweeping the kerbsides at Baltimore Road, an unscheduled opportunity for a chat with Jackie Keogh of the Southern Star resulted in a ‘say no to Roundup’ video. In our opinion, this video has ‘gone viral’ with five thousand views to date, and the interest by readers of the print version of the Star has prompted at least one letter to the editor!

Finally for this newsletter, as the saying goes ‘a picture tells a thousand words’ here are just a few of our favourites across recent months.