All About Cork: Businesses helping to keep Douglas clean and attractive

Maintaining a clean and attractive local environment in Douglas is very much a team effort, and two Cork-based businesses were on hand recently to show their community spirit.

First, employees from American open-source software company firm Red Hat converged on two locations to pick litter, clear weeds and plant bulbs, as part of its We are Red Hat Week — a global day of activities to volunteer in local communities.

One group of Red Hatters picked litter along Tramore River Walk (and into the bushes!). The river walk, which leads to Tramore Valley Park, as well as Vernon Mount Bridge and the adjoining cycle link, is a much-used facility that is filled with pollinator-friendly shrubs and flora, but has been prone to littering. Volunteers tackled the entrance by the Gaelscoil, cleaning signs and collecting a significant amount of rubbish.

The other group dug out winter heliotrope (Petasites fragans) as part of the Douglas Tidy Towns invasive species removal trial programme at the Donnybrook Hill entrance to Ballybrack Woods (the Mangala). Once this was done, more than 100 bluebell and daffodil bulbs were planted in the area, building on bulbs planted over the last two years, which are sure to brighten up the entrance to that much-loved walkway in the months — and hopefully years — ahead.

Pascale Murphy, the co-ordinator from Red Hat, commented: “Thank you very much for your support with our Global Day of Services activities. Everybody enjoyed and got satisfaction out of it”.

Breen’s Centra in Donnybrook — just around the corner from the bulb-planting spot — was the venue for another act of community spirit last week.

For the last few months, the popular store, which recently opened a significant retail extension, put a green basket outside the store for customers and staff to place their unwanted Re-Turn scheme bottles and cans, which were then converted into savings for donations to Douglas Tidy Towns. This culminated last Tuesday, the store donated a brand new €349 Stihl rechargeable battery-powered hedge trimmer to Douglas Tidy Towns to assist the work it does across the community.

The donation was gratefully received in store by volunteers Colette Flynn, Tara de Montfort and Tina Nicholson. Douglas Tidy Towns said it very much appreciates this donation and the continued support that Breen’s Centra gives to its activities.

Last week also saw a general meeting of Douglas Tidy Towns in the new upstairs meeting room of Douglas Community Centre, the launch of which was covered here last week.

The recent success of the group at the national Tidy Towns Awards, where Douglas achieved its first-ever silver medal, was discussed.

It was noted that while the score for biodiversity in particular was particularly high, there remains some work to be done in other areas to maintain this much-coveted silver status.

The future of some of the roadside planters maintained by the group was also discussed, with members agreeing that effort would be made to move the planters on the Rochestown Road, as well as looking to consolidate the planters at the Carrigaline Road entrance to Douglas and weeding the bottom of the nearby bridge.

Members were also asked to consider taking on committee roles ahead of the group’s AGM early next year.

Comhaltas na Dúglaise

Comhaltas na Dúglaise was honoured by the attendance of the national president of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Attracta Brady, to their awards night last Saturday, at Nemo Rangers.

She presented the certificates to those who sat the SCT exams earlier in the year and she presented awards to those who represented the branch in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Wexford.

She also presented scholarship instruments to pupils who were recommended by their teachers and special awards to three members of the committee for their outstanding voluntary service to the branch. The president praised Comhaltas na Dúglaise for their hard work promoting our Irish music and singing, she thanked the parents for giving their children the opportunity and praised the children and the adults for making the effort to reach the standard required for the SCT exams. The younger branch musicians played their trad music to welcome the attendance.

After the presentations food was served after which the adult grúpa members, joined by several of the younger members, played a wonderful selection of traditional Irish music.

Community association AGM

Ballinlough Community Association held their AGM recently and the organisers were disappointed with the attendance. The officers spoke about going forward is worrying as new people are not getting involved. Our main income is from rents and grants from Cork City Council and the centre is home to Shalom Montessori school. The centre is home to the Men’s Retirement Club and they meet every Wednesday afternoon. There is 45 Drive every Thursday that is organised by Breda Lynch and her nieces.The Men’s Shed was the brainchild of Cllr. Terry Shannon.

 They meet every Thursday at 11am. They have attended woodwork, horticulture, cookery, carpentry and technology courses. They have had several outings and would like to thank Garda Lorraine O’Donovan for driving the Garda Community Bus. 

The Ballinlough Summer Sceme was another great success. On their days away they had three buses each day full of delighted children. 

There are two youth clubs, junior and senior, on Friday nights. The Ballinlough Festival is held on the last Saturday in August. Cllr. Kieran McCarthy praised the work of the community assocition and thanked the officers for all their work. He also praised the committee of the Ballinlough Festival. 

Cllr. Terry Shannon addressed the meeting. 

He praised the work of the volunteers and thanked everyone that attended the meeting.

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