10 Years of Tidy Towns 

The Phibsboro Tidy Towns are celebrating their 10-year anniversary in April of this year. Tidy Towns has been up and running for around 50 years before it arrived in Phibsboro in 2015. Susan Dawson, one of the first committee members, talks about the impact Phibsboro Tidy Towns has had over the last 10 years. 

“Phibsboro had the arts festival Phizz Fest, and there was a conversation about what we would do next. Somebody mentioned Tidy Towns, which I had never heard of. I thought, ‘I’m not artistic, I’m not musical, but I could do a bit of cleanup.’ So, I looked into it, and that’s how it got started. We wanted to know what we could do for the community. 

“There was huge interest. We started the committee with about 15 people, which was very good. Then we started doing regular cleanups, so every third Saturday of the month, we would meet up and do a basic cleanup of the area, and we have continued that to this day. We have between 10 and 15 coming out for the cleanup, which is good; it’s a manageable amount. We have a shed behind the Phibsboro Library where we keep our supplies, and we do refreshments there. That gives people the opportunity to chat and get to know each other.” 

Biodiversity is one of the main focuses of the Tidy Towns. They are always looking for ways to improve it in the area and educate people about what they can do. 

.”Our big event of the year is Buzz Fest. A group of students from TU Dublin suggested a bee festival to help with tourism. So, we got funding from Croke Park Community Fund in 2016 to set up a beehive on the grounds of St Peter’s Church. We then started having a festival that celebrated the bees. That was how it started; we now have biodiversity stands, sustainability stands and locals who sell their own honey. 

“We got funding from the Community Foundation of Ireland for our biodiversity action plan, which included having a biodiverse and pollinator-friendly garden at the back of the library. The overall idea is to link the canal to the River Liffey with pollinators all along to help benefit the bees.

“We also do a family day in June at the garden with music, refreshments, plant giveaways and stalls about gardening and that sort of thing.”

Over the last few years, Phibsboro has seen an increase in the number of people moving to the area, which has resulted in more litter pollution.  

“I think the problem is that we’ve got a lot of rented accommodation. We’ve got lots of landlords who don’t care, don’t tell their tenants how to deal with the waste, and don’t provide them with anything to help dispose of the rubbish. A huge amount of the housing stock is rented, and a lot of the rented accommodation is not up to standard.” 

The problem of litter worsens throughout the summer months, particularly around areas like the canal.  

“We are trying to educate people that you don’t need to leave your rubbish behind; you can take it with you. The Dublin City Council have put these big bins up, but they very quickly get too full. We’ve asked the council to empty the bins more often, as people are leaving their rubbish on the ground beside the bin, so they’re going to make an effort to bring their waste to the bin and then find it’s too full.” 

Graffiti is another problem that has been affecting Phibsboro for years. 

“I would love for the council to do more about the graffiti. Initially, they were great at getting it down, but it costs a lot. Tidy Towns cannot do it because it’s private property, so it’s a case of trying to get the property owners to do it. Otherwise, the council do it themselves. Recently, we had a lot of graffiti around the canal. Waterways Ireland cleared it, but it’s all come back again. 

“We don’t know how to counteract it, so we’re just trying to minimize it. We got some funding from Pobal and got murals painted by artists on shop shutters to deter graffiti artists from them. We also commissioned one along the canal, which we love, and it’s still there.” 

I spoke with Celine Reilly, who is the ‘chief sustainability person’ and the driving force behind the sustainability work done by the Tidy Towns.  

“The main thing we have done as the sustainability subcommittee under the umbrella of the Tidy Towns over the last few years is the Master Energy Plan. We’re also hoping to tie in with the other Sustainable Energy Communities in Dublin 7, which are Cozy Batter and Connecting Cabra. 

“Last year we got a grant from Community Foundation Ireland to develop our circular economy plan, part of that was to look at some short, medium and long term plans. Our short-term plan was to do a map of all the black spots in Phibsboro, and the other was rainwater planters, which would be placed in people’s back gardens and connected to the downpipe from the roof so the rainwater goes directly into the planter. This would cut down flooding as it slows the water flow to the drains, and the planters have pollinators in them, which improves the air quality.” 

Tidy Towns wants to encourage people in the area to live more sustainably by informing them of the steps they can take.  

“Last year during Buzz Fest we had a climate walk and one of our committee members who has had a number of retrofits done to his house, kindly brought us in to show us the insulating, solar panels and other things he had done. We produced an information sheet so people could see what they could get done to improve the energy rating of their homes. We have templates on the Tidy Towns website that give people a sense of what retrofits they can do if they, for example, have a three-bed red brick terraced house. We also had a morning where we helped people fill out forms to get grants from the SEAI to retrofit their home.”  

Both Susan and Celine are active members of the community who do what they can for Phibsboro and its residents. Celine talked about a service she hopes will be implemented soon. 

“We are also part of Spark, which is led by Bohemian Football Club; they applied for a grant from Pobal to do a Library of Things. This will be a service that people can borrow from; for example, if they need a drill but they don’t want to buy one, they can borrow it. Through Spark, there are businesses that will possibly donate supplies, and we will build a shed to house them. We are hoping to get the funding and insurance for that approved in the near future. It will really benefit the people in the community, especially as many of these tools are very expensive to buy.” 

When talking about what the Tidy Towns means to her, Susan said: “For me, it’s really about bringing the community together and educating people on how they can improve biodiversity and what they can do in terms of retrofitting because a lot of the time people just don’t know. Some people are really interested in biodiversity and sustainability, and others just like the sense of being part of the community. We get people who are retired or semi-retired and have some time to spare, and we also get people who are new to the community and they want to get more integrated and it really is a great opportunity to meet new people.  

“As an inner-city urban area, we are not likely to win prizes for clean streets, etc., at least not until the dereliction is dealt with at the government level, but we are making great inroads on the climate crisis. We are encouraging people to ‘think global act local’ and to work together as a community.”