Making Swords a better place to live
STT members Ramune Kuzminiene and Emma O’Toole, the force behind our Clothes Swap events, decided to use the same venue for their first ever seed and plant swap on February 3. They were delighted with the turnout of keen gardeners on the day.
Two hundred euros was raised for Meals On Wheels via the sale of books donated by STT members.
Swords Tidy Towns was invited to send representatives to the opening of the newly refurbished Carnegie Library on North St. This building, funded by Scottish/American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, was built in 1908. For many years it was home to Swords Historical Society.
It will now house the Art Department, whose brief is to promote the arts within Swords and the Fingal region.
During speeches by Fingal Council members, kudos were given to STT for their interest in local history and their dedication to the community.
Our chairman Ken Duffy and members Rose Brennan, Georgy Hughes and Matt Cullen enjoyed the opportunity to see the newly completed renovation, and to hear about the new uses for this well-known building.
Ramune Kuzminiene, whose particular interest is in nature and biodiversity, took time out from her regular Saturday morning sessions with STT to attend a hedge-laying training day in Skerries. This is an initiative of Fingal County Council.
STT members Grace Dunne, George Mongey, Catherine Napper McDonagh and Mary Maxwell, under the direction of fellow member Ramune Kuzminiene have been involved in monthly water monitoring at particular spots along the Ward River, the Broadmeadow and the Estuary since May 2023. STT was one of only 6 groups chosen to take part in an joint project funded by ChangeX and Fresh Water Watch. Their aim is empower people to measure the health of their local waterways using sound scientific methods.
We were pleased to read that Ramune’s impact report, plus Catherine’s personal account about her water watching experiences, formed the basis of Water Watch’s promotional article on January 17th, 2024.
On January 13, STT held the first of its popular Clothes Swap Shop events for 2024.
This time there was an added attraction. STT member Teresa had well over 100 good quality novels, which she wanted to donate to charity. It was decided to sell these at €3 each, and to donate the takings to the local Meals On Wheels.
The clothes swap was successful once again, and €100 was raised for charity.
Rose Brennan, our polytunnel and flower manager, has been busy overseeing the growing of spring bulbs by her team. She then supervised the planting at various locations around the town. These will provide a wonderful display of colour in the coming months.
In the pictures below, Darren, Sean and Stuart getting the bulbs ready for planting next day.
A mixture of spring bulbs were planted on Forest Road and by St Colmcille’s school. Our newer volunteers were assisted by longtime members Malachy and Marie.
A few weeks later on January 21, another team of our wonderful volunteers were planting spring bulbs on Dublin Rd and Pinockhill Roundabout.
Peacock’s Bar in Rivervalley was the venue for our end-of-year celebrations on December 8, where Fiona and staff ensured that we had a wonderful evening.
Andy, the DJ, worked his magic with the dance music and karaoke. As usual there was no shortage of volunteers wanting to perform their songs either individually or in groups.
Guests included several members of the Women’s Shed and the Men’s Shed. Councillors Brigid Manton and Joe Newman, generous donors and supporters of STT joined in the fun too.
We appreciate the kind donations to our Chrismas hamper by SuperValu Boroimhe and Pavilions Swords.
Our 8th clothes swap shop took place at the very beginning of December, and was, of course, Christmas themed. We had a great selection of Christmas jumpers (some vintage) and dresses for both adults and children. We had some great fun as always!
It’s been a particulary productive season for Ramune, STT member and master composter. She has taken advantage of the mesh materials, provided by Fingal County Council, and the abundance of leaves to extend her leaf mould composting programme in Swords.
A new leaf mould (old cage replacement) was installed and filled at Pinnock Hill on October 14. Thirteen bags of two-year-old compost from the previous years were taken to our polytunnel to be used in our gardening projects.
Two weeks later with the help of other STT members and Transition Year students, the year-old leaves were taken to the tunnel for further composting, and the cage re-filled with fresh leaves.
Later in the month Ramune and Grace relocated, combined and prepared the leaf cages in Seatown for the new season. In November 4 new cages were installed and filled, and the two other ones topped up.
On November 7, Ramune helped Kay, a Carlton Court estate resident, to set up two leaf cages. A third mould was installed shortly afterwards. All three were packed to full capacity over the following weeks. By December a total of 5 were in position on that estate.
Another STT member, Catherine, collected leaves for the new cage at Cherry Park. On November 8 she and her neighbours were shocked to discover that a small group of young teenagers had set fire to the cage. We are accustomed to working with enthusiastic, hard-working Transition Year students, so this was totally unexpected. Never daunted, Catherine and Ramune installed a new cage the next day, and salvaged what they could. To our dismay the new cage was damaged two days later. It has now been relocated in a more public position, and neighbours have been keeping a watchful eye on it. Another new cages has been installed in the neighbouring Cherry Avenue.
On November 11, cages on Watery Lane and by the Fire Station were emptied/combined and refilled. On November 25 a new cage was installed on Watery Lane next to the Town Park and older ones topped up.
With the help of Malachy, a STT member, two more cages were installed at Rivervalley Rise.
Ramune received 6 extra cages from Craig Benton through FCC, as she’d used up all 8 of the original quota at the start of the season. All 14 new cages (a replacement of old cages in some cases) were installed and filled this year in Swords. Currently, Swords Tidy Towns members are looking after 26 leaf mould cages in various locations in Swords.
A by-product of this scheme was the prevention of slipping accidents. We cleared paths of fallen, wet leaves as we worked.
It was wonderful to see how many residents of the town became interested in learning more about this type of composting, as they saw us go about our work. So leaf cages may appear in more housing estates and in new locations around town next autumn.
Swords Tidy Towns 