Category Archives: Sustainable Skerries
Skerries Community Association Accounts 2020
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For information about the AGM on 4th October 2021, and the report for 2020/21 go to AGM 2021: The 2020/21 Report
AGM 2021: The 2020/21 Report
This year, the annual report about the work of the Skerries Community Association and its committees will not be distributed to every household in Skerries. A limited number of printed copies will be available in the Community Centre, in local shops, in the week before the AGM (4th October 2021) and on request by email to chair@skerriesca.com.
Click on the thumbnail below to see the full report with turnable pages.
Skerries Community Association & Committees 2020/21 Report
And if you’d like the links to be clickable, open the PDF here:
Jim Quigley Award 2021
Recognition of couple’s volunteering contribution to Skerries life.
On Saturday 9 October 2021 Skerries Community Association (SCA) and Skerries Town Football Club jointly recognised the immense contribution of Michael (Mick) and Noeleen Bolger to community sporting activity in the town. The occasion was the presentation of the Jim Quigley award for volunteer of the year and it took place in the grounds of Skerries Town FC after the weekly Kids Academy coaching session.
Every year SCA invites nominations from residents for the Jim Quigley Award which are then passed to independent judges for assessment.
This year the Judges selected Mick and Noeleen as the winners of the Jim Quigley Award for their years of dedicated work with Skerries Town Football Club. In their written comments, the judges said, “running Saturday morning coaching sessions (the Kids Academy) for up to ninety under-tens for seven months of the year is not an easy task. To do this for eighteen years coupled with involvement with other sporting and community activities including the Community Games at Mosney and the Special Olympics at Croke Park in 2003 requires dedication and commitment second to none.”
Mick and Noeleen set up the ‘ Kid’s Academy” on Saturday mornings with Skerries Town Football Club in September 2003 to provide coaching in basic football skills for five to nine year olds. They felt that children in the early years of their football life need an environment of non-competitive football to learn the basic skills. The Kid’s Academy, or KA as its better known provides such an environment.
The judges remarked that the real winner is the community of Skerries who get such wonderful benefit from the work done by people like Michael and Noeleen.
Accepting the award, Mick said that many others are and were involved in making the Kids Academy a success.
Michael McKenna presented the Jim Quigley award on behalf of the SCA and Owen O’Brien, Chairperson Skerries Town F.C. made a presentation of flowers and champagne on behalf of the club to Mick and Noeleen.
AGM 2020: The 2019/20 Report
This year, the annual report about the work of the Skerries Community Association and its committees will not be distributed to every household in Skerries. A limited number of printed copies will be available from 10/10/2020 in the Community Centre, in local shops, and on request by email to chair@skerriesca.com.
Click on the thumbnail below to see the full report with turnable pages.
SCA and Committees: Our 2019/20 Report
And if you’d like the links to be clickable, open the PDF here:
Adopt a newly planted tree! 🌳
Just like new residents, new trees want to put down roots!
Many new trees have been planted throughout Skerries this year. And they need our help! It has not been raining much, and the forecast indicates very little rain on the way.
Earlier this year we saw many newly planted trees appear in the new housing estates (Ballygossan, Barnageeragh, Hamilton Hill) and alongside what are now known as Barnageeragh Road (previously the Distributor Road) and Harrison Cove Road (previously Northcliffe Heights). There are also some recently planted trees near Prosper Fingal that need watering.
It’s great to have lots of trees but they all need minding, especially in the first year.
Fingal County Council tell us that in more normal times they would always water newly planted trees over the first two summers after planting. Regrettably the Council is not in a position to carry out watering at this time as it is not a work task that can be done on the scale required while maintaining the recommended physical distancing.
These are very unusual times and Skerries must look to the great volunteering spirit of its residents to help. If we can water the new trees outside, or near our homes we can save these trees, but it must be done in a way that keeps people safe.
Let’s adopt a tree!
Give one of the newly planted trees some water (at least 5l at a time, ideally 1.5 gallons) every second day. You could, for instance, fill an empty large water container (or 2-3 two-litre bottles), put them in your backpack and bring them with you when out on your walk, then water a tree that seems to not have been watered yet by another adopter. Let’s keep our trees healthy! But keep ourselves healthy too, by keeping our distance.
Good to see that residents in Barnageeragh Cove have got the ball rolling on this as have residents in the town centre and a number of individual tree water bearers around the estates.
Skerries Community Association
Skerries Tidy Towns
Sustainable Skerries
The Skerries Tree Preservation Group
Two Tree Talks in Skerries on 12 March 2020
Skerries welcomes Éanna Ní Lamhna (The Tree Council) & Kevin Halpenny (Fingal County Council) for a Tree- and Biodiversity- Focused Evening
About this Event
Are you interested in trees and how they can contribute to life and biodiversity in our town?
On Thursday 12 March, at 8 p.m. sharp (doors open at 7.40), in the Little Theatre, well-known environmentalist and media personality Éanna Ní Lamhna (Vice Chair of The Tree Council) will talk about “The Importance of Trees” – followed by a presentation by Fingal County Council’s Parks Superintendent Kevin Halpenny.
Kevin is in charge of the current review of Fingal’s Tree Strategy and will be talking about “Biodiversity and the Draft Fingal Tree Strategy.”
After the two presentations, there will be time for discussion and questions and answers.
This promises to be a very interesting evening. It is organised by a number of groups with an active interest in trees in Skerries: The Skerries Community Association, Skerries Tidy Towns, Crann Padraig, and Sustainable Skerries. The organisers hope it will inform significantly their input into the draft Tree Strategy, which is currently being drawn up.
- This is a free event, but space is limited, so please book your ticket on SustainableSkerries.Eventbrite.ie
Skerries Better Energy Community (BEC) meeting, 4 December 2017
You are invited to a public meeting on Skerries Better Energy Community (BEC) programme at 8 pm, 4 December, Old School, Skerries Community Centre
Skerries Community Association (SCA) invites you to a public information meeting to learn how communities can work together to avail of generous grants to retrofit homes, community buildings and business premises, to make them warmer and reduce energy costs. Grants of 80% are available if you are on a fuel allowance, 35% if not, 50% for community buildings and 30% for commercial buildings. At the meeting you will be able to learn more about the practicalities of the scheme and to sign up for a free assessment of the work that would be suitable for making your own house more energy efficient.
In 2016 and 2017, 150 homeowners in mid-Louth benefited from this scheme, which was managed by Dunleer Community Development Board. The total investment to date was €1.2M, and these interventions have made energy savings of 3.6 million Kilowatts.
Skerries Community Association plans to initially partner with the successful scheme in Louth managed by Dunleer Community Development Board, who are making a further application under the 2018 BEC Programme.
http://www.themarkethouse.ie/index.php/about/the-dcdb/207-dcdb-background-and-mission-statement
Funding for Better Energy Communities is provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) https://www.seai.ie/grants/community-grants/
To learn more please come along to the meeting. To help us get an idea of likely attendance please email betterenergy@skerriesca.com
Download flyer: Skerries Better Energy Community (BEC) meeting, 4 December 2017
Skerries Community Garden – Be part of it!
Would you like to grow your own food without the expense and commitment of an allotment?
Do you want to learn how to grow food and flowers with a community of other people?
Do you have time to spare and interested in becoming involved with a Community Food Garden?
WE HAVE THE ANSWER FOR YOU. Sustainable Skerries in association with Fingal County Council and Skerries Tidy Towns have permission to create food growing garden near Skerries Mills.
If you are interested in becoming part of this project, please email skerriescommunityfoodgarden@
Being part of a Community food garden will provide you with an opportunity to meet new people, become more active, have access to fresh produce and learn how easy it is to grow food.
Submissions by our Committees re Town Park
There is considerable interest in Skerries in the redevelopment of Skerries Town Park, and rightly so. In addition to the direct submission made by Skerries Community Association to Fingal County Council, a number of our committees also made their thoughts known. Some of them can be accessed here on our website – see rough summaries and links below.
Active Transport
Skerries Cycling Initiative made a comprehensive submission to Fingal County Council regarding the Town Park redevelopment. In summary:
Skerries Cycling Initiative (SCI) welcomes this plan in principle. The proposed new entrances and paths have the potential to create better access to amenities in the park and more importantly, to provide links between the North, South, East and West of the town.
The Town Park serves many purposes and its redevelopment gives Skerries a unique opportunity. Our comments in this submission are directed towards improving the Town Park as an active travel hub as well as improving access to the many amenities -existing and planned- in the Town Park. As such our focus is on extending the capacity of the Park to provide safe routes of travel for persons walking and cycling, using wheelchairs and other mobility vehicles including cycles adapted for persons with disabilities. We want the end result of the redevelopment to be the creation of an inclusive, age friendly and attractive space. We wish also to point out that increasing numbers of battery powered mobility vehicles are in use around the town and it is important that the users of these vehicles are catered for through well designed pathways in the Park.
Click on the following link to open the full submission, which includes maps and tables, in a new window: SCI Submission Townpark Redevelopment
Community Food Garden
Adding a community food garden was at the heart of the submission made by our Sustainable Skerries Committee. They write:
Sustainable Skerries wishes to submit a proposal to Fingal County Council with respect to the Skerries Town Park development to allow an area for a Community garden in the plans.
Site specification: Good drainage Easy to secure 600 -1000m2
We believe that the ideal location for the community garden would be beside the Bowling green, where the shipping container is at present. This area has easy access for young and old people alike, and is somewhat secure.
You can read their submission in full here: Community Food Garden Proposal to FCC Sustainable Skerries
Skatepark
The Skerries Skatepark Committee, also part of the SCA, wrote:
As part of the new Town Park Development Plan we would like to see a skatepark included in the overall plans. It has been the vision of the committee to construct a skatepark that is sensitive to its surrounding from a visual and environmental viewpoint. … Ideally 700 m2 area would suit a skatepark, this give enough room for mixed ages and abilities to participate at the same time. As a comparison a football pitch is around 7,000 m2.
See the full submission here: Town Park Plan – skatepark
Skerries Tidy Towns also had direct input to Fingal County Council in this regard; we will add their submissions as they become available to us.
A Community Food Garden for Skerries?
This month, Sustainable Skerries (one of our Skerries Community Association committees) hosted a public meeting about setting up a Community Food Garden in Skerries.
The Skerries Community Garden logo looks promising.
A Community Food Garden is land gardened by and for the benefit of the community. Following an informative presentation from a representative of Santry Community Garden, and a lively discussion, a steering team has been put together to drive the project forward.
If you are interested in getting involved in the initial stages, please email Zaneta on zanetawright@gmail.com
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- Santry Community Garden
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- Santry Tomatoes
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- Santry Community Garden 2014