THE weather is changing and the days are shortening, but the Shannon Tidy Towns group is still active.
“We’ll still be doing litter picks, that’s important because you’re never free of rubbish in any town or village, group secretary Derek Clune told The Champion.
“It’s important to keep the River Walk tidy because it’s very well used, the Town Park is the same. When the Town Park was developed the Council introduced this Leave No Trace, the idea is that everyone takes away everything, and it’s great in theory but in practice it doesn’t work I’m afraid.
“If that wasn’t done two or three times a week it would look bad. It’s very well used, families use it, you have the pump track there, the River Walk is the same, even people from outside Shannon use it.”
The group is also hoping to complete a long-planned project this month.
“We have a big project in the pipeline for a long time and it’ll be completed in a few weeks, that’s the enhancement of the Ballycasey Roundabout.
“We have the funding got, the TII own the roundabout so there were a lot of things to comply with. At this stage we have everything they’ve asked us to do done, and we’re waiting for permission to come back and we’re ready to go then.”
Earlier in the year the group planted 3,500 trees, with help from the local schools and some local businesses.
At the Ballycasey Roundabout they will put down some 11,500 spring bulbs, while there will also be pollinator-friendly perennials, meaning year-round colour.
The Tidy Towns group has been very active over the last couple of years and Derek feels that Clare County Council doesn’t really have the manpower required to keep the town’s maintenance at the proper level.
“There are two people on a FAS scheme, 20 hours each a week and they do litter picking. Outside of that everything else is firefighting, catching up all the time.
“We’ve been out all year trying to clean up roundabouts, the main roundabouts coming into Shannon, we’ve done as many as we can now and we’ll try and keep on top of it, but if we didn’t do it, it wouldn’t happen. It’s a big issue all over Ireland, work like this is being left to groups like ourselves.”
Often volunteers do work that would be more suitable for younger people.
“A lot of our group are retired people, the core group of the Tidy Towns would be retired people, because people who are working wouldn’t have as much time. So people in their 60s and older are out doing manual work.”
Another issue that the group faces is negotiating ever increasing bureaucracy, which Derek says takes up an inordinate amount of time.
“Do you know something, I’m nearly busier now than when I was working,” he jokes.
Derek is also heavily involved in the Shannon Men’s Shed and he says there has been great enthusiasm for it among its members post-Covid restrictions.
“Everyone felt the impact of the lockdown, but a lot of our members would be men who are retired and living alone. I think that group of people found it exceptionally hard. The first day we came back you could see the joy in fellas’ faces, they were so delighted to be back. Ever since then we have a great turnout every Tuesday and Thursday.”
There is a lot of work for those interested to get on with.
“We’re doing our projects again, we have a backlog of work now, we have around ten benches from different people to repair. We did a lot of the fairy doors now, to go back up.”
The original fairy doors made by the Men’s Shed were mysteriously taken from trees along the River Walk last year, in what was a baffling incident.
“I can’t come to any conclusion as to who did it or for what reason. It wasn’t teenagers, teenagers wouldn’t get a ladder with a drill or a screwdriver. You’d have to walk a kilometre or more with your ladder. It wasn’t done during the daytime.”
The Shed recently received a grant of €1,500 from the Clare Local Development Company and bought a welder, a bandsaw and a pedestal grinder, but there is plenty of room for people who don’t want to get involved in the hands on work.
“Some people love to go into the workshop. Other people then stay inside, have a cup of tea and chat for an hour or two hours.
“For the winter there might be cards or something like that. It’s basically for the chat, they want to come down and chat about whatever happened during the week, or it could be where they worked years ago or stories from their past.”
There is also a regular night of song, Derek reveals.
“We resurrected our singing night as well, that’s the first Tuesday of every month at 8pm below at the Shed. We invited outside people to come as well, there could be 20 or 30 people. Everyone is asked to either sing a song or do a recitation if you can’t sing. If you can’t sing, still sing, it’s not a competition. That’s great as well, fellas really enjoy it. There’s no alcohol involved either, just a cup of tea.”
In general he feels that people are delighted to be back doing things they enjoy.
“Members of both groups are delighted to be back up and running after the Covid. It showed us how important it is to get out and meet people and talk to people after being locked up for two years, it thought people a lot of valuable lessons.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.