Category Archives: TidyTowns

Community Awards Night 2015

The wonderful achievements of local resident’s associations, businesses and young athletes were all recognised at the annual Community Awards Night held in Manzor’s The Village Inn on Friday October 30th. The winners of this year’s Clane Tidy Towns Best Kept Estates and Best Presented Premises competitions were also revealed.

First up were those young athletes who were awarded medals at the All-Ireland Community Games championships held during the summer. Matthew Walsh-Hussey was recognised for being awarded the silver medal for Under 12 Freestyle Swimming. He was carefully coached by Susan Galbraith, with the help also of Agnes McGuire, and Michelle and Paul McLoughlin.

Clane’s under 12 soccer team also made it all the way to All-Ireland medals – they secured the bronze in their competition. The team consisted of Cormac Bradley, Sean Sheridan, Cian Dowling, Arran Wosser, Christopher Part, Ethan Farrell, David O’Beirne, Mark Gibbons, Eoin Geraghty, Dean Comiskey, Sean Uzamah, Darren Ward, Tom Nolan, Isac Jamirah, John Fitzsimons and Ben Kirwan. They were lead by the hard-working management team of Peter Kirwan, Derek Sheridan and Aaron Kirwan.

Martina Healy, who coordinates all Clane & Rathcoffey Community Games activities, was also recognised on the night for all her hard work through out the year.

Moving on the the Tidy Towns portion of the evening, Chairman of Clane Community Council Des Drumm thanked the Tidy Towns committee for their hard work during the year, and congratulated them on gaining 4 extra points for the village, and retaining the bronze medal, in the national competition.

Chairperson of Clane Tidy Towns Helen O’Flaherty then thanked the many individuals, businesses, community organisations and resident’s associations that had contributed so generously to Clane’s Tidy Towns efforts in 2015.

The evening ended with the announcement of the winners of this years Best Kept Estates and Best Presented Premises competitions generously sponsored by Clane Project Centre. The prizes were presented by chairman of Clane Project Centre Kit Grogan. The winners were:

Large Estates:

First Prize: Joint winners Central Park & Churchfield, and Abbey Park
Second Prize: Brooklands
Third Prize: College Wood Manor

Medium Sized Estates:

First Prize: Park View
Second Prize: Capdoo Park

Small Estates:

First Prize: Mainham Wood
Second Prize: College Grove

Best Presented Premises:

Bob & Kate’s

A big thanks to all who helped out on the night, and in all the activities throughout the year. Clane Tidy Towns and Clane & Rathcoffey Community Games wish you a well-deserved relaxing few months, and look forward to your continued support in the years ahead.

Clane gets the Bronze!!

Everyone’s great work has paid off – Clane was awarded a well deserved Bronze Medal is this year’s National Tidy Towns Competition.

A big thanks to all of the residents’s associations, businesses, schools, scouts, beavers, and other volunteers who supported this year’s events so enthusiastically.

There are a total of 450 marks available under a wide range of categories:

Community Involvement & Planning
Built Environment and Streetscape
Landscaping and Open Spaces
Wildlife, Habitats and Natural Amenities
Sustainable Waste and Resource Management
Tidiness and Litter Control
Residential Streets & Housing Areas
Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes

The judges concluding remarks were:

Well done Clane, an entry befitting your experience. Excellent submissions in a number of categories. Your upward trajectory continues

You can see their complete write-up here.

Best-Kept Estates Competition 2015

The residential areas of Clane make a huge contribution to Clane’s entry in the national Tidy Towns competition. To encourage, and to acknowledge, the great efforts of our residents and Resident’s Associations we are delighted to announce the launch of the 2015 Clane Best-Kept Estates Competition. All estates in Clane are invited to enter by filling out their details here. Independent judges will visit the estates in the July time-frame. Best of luck to all who enter!

Clane’s Tidy Towns campaign in full swing!

Clane’s Tidy Towns campaign for 2015 is now in full swing. Volunteers gather every Tuesday at 7:30pm outside the Abbey. In recent weeks the Kildare 13th Beavers, the Staff of SuperValu Clane, the pupils of Scoil Phádraig and several of the businesses on Main Street have made wonderful contributions. Would you or your organisation like to get involved? Just drop down some Tuesday you have an hour or two free or contact us at ClaneTidyTowns@gmail.com

Tidy Towns tackling the Ballynagappagh Road with the help of SuperValu Clane

Tidying up the Ballynagappagh Road with the help of SuperValu Clane

13th Kildare Beavers after a big clean-up of Nancy’s Lane

13th Kildare Beavers after litter picking the Liffey Walk

Intel Community Grant 2015

Clane Community Council were delighted to receive a community grant from Intel again this year, reflecting the significant number of hours volunteered by Intel employees in Community Council activities like Tidy Towns and Community Games.

Chairman Des Drumm attended the award ceremony on the Intel campus in Leixlip recently, with one of the Intel employees that volunteers on Community Council activities, John Kennedy, there to help with the handover.

If you know of any Intel employees in the community, please remind them that hours they volunteer to activities like Tidy Towns and Community Games can have the bonus affect of helping to raise valuable funds for the community.

Clane Community Council are grateful to Intel for not just their generous financial contribution, but also their willingness for their employees to put their skills and enthusiasm to work in the community too.

Scoil Phadráig’s Biodiversity Green Flag Initiative

The Green Schools committee, students, and staff at Scoil Phádraig are working hard towards securing their next Green Flag. Under the stewardship of Deputy Principal Mr. Eyres, over 200 nestboxes and insect hotels were recently produced and distributed amongst the families of those attending. An additional 50 boxes were very generously presented to Clane Tidy Towns and Kildare Branch of Birdwatch Ireland.

To help mark this wonderful contribution, John Kennedy from Clane Community Council’s Clane Tidy Towns presented a talk “Wild About Clane” to a hall full of 6 classes of students. The enthusiastic boys proved to be very knowledgeable, but were genuinely surprised to learn of some of our local wildlife. Butterflies that migrate to Clane all the way from Africa. Animals that can catch grey squirrels but not the native red. Birds that once they leave their nest up high on buildings on our Main Street, do not stop flying till they try to nest themselves two or three years later. Garden Tigers, Elephant Hawkmoths and more.

John Kennedy, Clane Tidy Towns, introducing local biodiversity

The audience also asked some valuable questions, and learned of very practical and surprising ways they can help protect biodiversity in Clane. Thoughtless acts such as Littering and Graffiti cost so much time and money – and huge efforts in volunteer fundraising – that stamping them out would give volunteers in Clane the ability to fund and do much more exciting things of benefit to the community – including wildlife initiatives.

What’s This???

The talk ended with a big thank you to the school: the Green Flags awarded to the primary schools of Clane are a very important contribution to our Clane Tidy Towns activities and helped Clane achieve a Bronze Medal for the first time in the 2014 national competition. We wish them every success in their campaign for their next Green Flag.

Members of the Green School's Committee presenting their Nest Boxes

Members of the Green School’s Committee presenting over 50 Nest Boxes to Clane Tidy Towns and Kildare Branch of Birdwatch Ireland

National Clean-up in Clane 2015

A big thanks to everyone who helped in the National Clean-Up day event held on March 21st last. The enthusiastic volunteers tackled several areas including:

An empty skip at the start of the day

The River Liffey – thanks to Clane Trout and Salmon Anglers Association
The old entrance to Abbeylands
The field beside Lidl
The Celbridge Road
Parts of Capdoo Lane
The Ballynagappagh Road
Loughanure Commons
Nancy’s Lane

Between them they managed to fill a full roll-on skip of rubbish kindly hosted for us by Joe Campbell. Other trailer loads of rubbish were collected from the ditches of Clane and deposited in large skips in Rathcoffey.

It is disappointing that this volume of rubbish is still being dumped in and around our village, but our sincere thanks to everyone who helped tackle this issue on the day, and to the Tir na Mona network for a delicious lunch and for coordinating the broader countryside clean-up in this part of County Kildare.

Cleaning up the Old Abbeylands Entrance

Cllr Padraig McEvoy with the rubbish collected from Nancy’s Lane

Clane Trout and Salmon Angler’s Association collected this material from the Liffey

Some of the rubbish collected by the end of the day

Clane Tidy Towns Award Night

Clane Tidy Towns held their annual awards night on Friday 17th October last where the winners of their Best Kept Estates and Best Presented Premises competitions – generously sponsored by Clane Project Centre – were unveiled.

Clane Tidy Towns founding member Tony McEvoy compered the evening. John Kennedy, Chairman of Clane Community Council, congratulated the Tidy Towns team and everyone that contributed to their efforts on a wonderful year. It was a remarkable year for Clane took home its first medal in the National Tidy Towns competition, a bronze, a wonderful achievement for which everyone should be proud.

Tony then listed some of the local businesses, organisations, clubs and individuals that had contributed to this years success. This assistance was supplemented by the great work of the residents and their residents’ associations, as visible through their efforts in the Best Kept Estate competition.

The prizewinners were announced by Tidy Towns team member Jeanette Drumm, and presented by Ted Murray of Clane Project Centre, the generous sponsors of the competition.

The winners of the Best Kept Estates competition 2014 are:

Small Estates:
1 – College Grove
2 – Mainham Wood

Medium Sized Estates:
1 – Park View
2 – Otomy Estate

Large Estates:
1 – Central Park & Churchfield
2 – Abbey Park
3 – Joint winners Alexandra Walk & Park and Brooklands

The winner of the 2014 Clane Best Presented Premises competition is

KARE Centre on the Celbridge Road

A sincere thank you to all the estates that participated in the competition, and to everyone that has contributed in any way to Clane’s Tidy Towns efforts.

Clane takes the Bronze in Tidy Towns 2014!

Every resident, business, club and organisation that contributed to Clane Tidy Towns activities in 2014 can take a bow: for the first time in its 40 years of participation, Clane was awarded a Bronze Medal in the national Tidy Towns competition 2014.

With a maximum score being 450 points, for our size of village Clane was just 9 points behind Silver medalists Buncrana and Youghal and 23 away from a Gold which was earned by Westport, Skerries and Carrickmacross.

Tidy towns has evolved significantly over the recent years and is no longer just about tidiness. The total of 450 points are available from the following categories:

Community Involvement & Planning (60)
Built Environment and Streetscape (50)
Landscaping and Open Spaces (50)
Wildlife, Habitats and Natural Amenities (50)
Sustainable Waste and Resource Management (50)
Tidiness and Litter Control (90)
Residential Streets & Housing Areas (50)
Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes (50)

The commitment of the volunteers on the Clane Tidy Towns team, together with the wonderful contributions of the many Resident’s Associations, Businesses, Schools and Community Groups in Clane were all noticed and commended by the adjudicator.

You can read all the details for yourself in the two-page Adjudicator Report for Clane. Please take a look and see how we were judged. If you have any suggestions for how Clane can do even better in future years we would love to hear from you. You can email ClaneTidyTowns@gmail.com, come along to any of our meetings in the Community Calendar, or talk to any of the Tidy Towns team in person.

One great opportunity to meet the team will be our annual awards night which will be held later in October. This will be a special night to celebrate all the hard work of the community. We will publish more details on ClaneCommunity.ie as we get closer to the time…if you haven’t joined the Community Council mailing list already you can click here to stay informed.

Celebrating Heritage Week in Clane

The heritage of Clane is rich and varied and this Heritage Week there are several special events arranged to help everyone discover and celebrate it…

On Saturday starting 3pm in ALDI car park, Clane Local History Group have organised a Heritage Walk to introduce you to some of the historic built heritage of the village.
On Sunday starting 8pm in Westgrove Shopping Centre car park, a Wild About Clane…at Sunset nature walk will be lead with experts from Kildare Bat Group, Kildare branch of Birdwatch Ireland and GROWing Gardens.
On Tuesday at 8pm in Clane Library Clane Local History Group will present a talk on “Some Forgotten Clane Residences“.

For details of other heritage week events in and around the area why not check out http://www.heritageweek.ie/

Best-Kept Estate Competition – now open for entries!

Clane Tidy Towns are delighted to again hold our popular Best Kept Estates competition thanks to the continued generous sponsorship by Clane Project Centre.

This year there are some changes to the competition format. Rather than score an estate under various categories based on one visit, this year the judges will be asked to consider each estate from a broader point of view, and to make any comments they deem appropriate rather than give scores based on just one visit. They will take into account any initiatives since the last competition that they are made aware of in the entry form.

More information on the competition is available here and all housing estates are encouraged to enter. Paper forms have been distributed but estates can alternatively fill out the online entry form here.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact anyone on the Tidy Towns team or email ClaneTidyTowns@gmail.com.

Our residential areas have helped Clane make great progress in the National Tidy Towns competitions in recent years. We look forward to seeing you at our awards night later in the year to help celebrate everyone’s contributions this year. Thank you for you continued support.

Clane’s Spring Clean – Thank You!

A big thank you to all the volunteers and supporters who helped kick-off Clane Tidy Town’s programme for 2014 with our big Spring Clean.

In association with an Taisce and Tír na Móna, blackspots in and around Clane were tackled with gusto, and a significant amount of rubbish retrieved. Some of the results of the efforts can be seen in the photos below. Areas cleaned-up included:

The large open-ground near Lidl
The Capdoo lane just off the Kilcock Road
The Kilcock road near Millicent graveyard
The Ballinagappa Road
The Stream Park
Inner relief road
The Liffey Walk
Liffeyside Nature Park
The ruin at Alexandra Bridge

A big thanks to Clane Trout and Salmon Anglers whose members retrieved over 12 bags of rubbish from in and around the Liffey. Sincere thanks also go to local businesses who supported the event: McKenna’s Hardware, Doolin’s Londis, Condrons SuperValu, AES Bord na Móna and Campbell’s Tyres. A special mention too to Cllr. Pádraig McEvoy who helped organise the broader Tír na Móna clean up as well as support the local Clane Tidy Towns efforts.

By the end of the day a full roll-on roll-off skip was filled to the brim with rubbish, and a trailer load of recyclable waste was collected by Kildare County Council for reprocessing.

Sincere thanks to all who contributed to the event in any way.

Tidy Towns Awards…Drumroll Please…

Monday 21st October was the occasion of the Clane Tidy Towns Awards night where all of the hard work of residents associations, local businesses and the Tidy Towns committee was celebrated. Our new All-Ireland Champions – the wonderful Clane and Rathcoffey Community Games Mixed Under 10 Gaelic Football team – were also honoured…

Clane and Rathcoffey Community Games

Clane’s Community Games endeavours lasted all the way to the national finals in Athlone this year as our Mixed Under 10 Gaelic Football team made it all the way to the finals…and won…becoming All Ireland Champions!

Most of the winning panel made it to the award ceremony and were presented with a little memento of the occasion. The full panel included Ronan Murphy, Dean Cumiskey, Oisin O’Sullivan, Seán Sheridan, Micheál O’Connor, Ben Kirwan, Matthew Walsh-Hussey, Ethan Farrell, Holly Farrell, Leah Feane, Patrick McNally, Rebecca Lynch, Rosemary Ennis, Daire Doherty, James Ball, Christopher Part, Laoise Gillman, Sean Finnerty and Sean Tighe.

The squad were carefully and expertly coached and managed by a team consisting of Ray Kiernan, John Doherty, David Farrell and Jill Gillman, all of whom were thanked for the time and effort they put into the panel.

Of course the team could not have progressed without physically getting to the various matches, and so for their generous financial support which enabled coach hire, local businesses P.D.M., Cooney Electronics, XL Tools Leixlip, David Lowe and Co. Ltd. – Greg Hopkins, Paul McCormack – McCormack Hooper Dolan, and Robert Massey – Bostik Ltd. were all thanked.

A special presentation was also made to the wonderful Martina Healy for her leadership and dedication to Clane and Rathcoffey Community Games. So many of the children of Clane have enjoyed Community Games over the years thanks to her hard work, and the work of her enthusiastic committee.

Congratulations to all involved and here’s looking forward to our All Ireland champions achieving even greater successes in the years to come.

Clane Tidy Towns

Clane Tidy Towns achievements were also celebrated on the evening. The chairman of Clane Community Council, John Kennedy, thanked the residents, the businesses, the churches, the schools, the scouts, the individuals and in particular the hardworking Committee of Clane Tidy Towns for helping Clane look so well this year, progressing even further in the national Tidy Towns competition than before, this year reaching top of it’s class in Kildare.

Matt Hayes from the Tidy Towns Committee then thanked the various sponsors of the night all of the contributors to the activities during the year before finally the moment of truth: the results of the best kept estates and best kept premises were announced. With prizes sponsored by Clane Project Centre, the winners were:

Small Estates

Awarded jointly to Mainham Wood and College Grove
Butterstream Drive and Lawn

Medium Estates

Park View
Oatfield Park

Large Estates:

Abbey Park
Central Park and Churchfield
Loughbollard

Best Presented Premises

Manzor’s – The Village Inn

Although not every estate could receive an award, no estate went home empty handed as Clane Tidy Towns had organised for a Nest Box and a bag of spring bulbs to be presented to each estate as a thank you for participating the competition. The Tidy Towns committee passed on a sincere thank you to everyone who helped out in Clane Tidy Towns activities in 2013 in any way – and encouraged anyone with any suggestions for improvements in 2014 to get in touch with any of them at any time.

Indeed – there is a great opportunity coming up this November 8th to meet with the Tidy Towns team: they are hosting a table quiz in Manzor’s on Friday evening in support of Clane Tidy Towns activities. Tables of four costing €40 with kick off at 9pm. Why not enter a team and help close off the Tidy Towns year with some fun!

Rescued from a Wine-bottle…

When Clane Tidy Towns were cleaning up a local stream they found something unexpected inside a wine bottle…when they cracked open the wine bottle see what they found for yourself below!

This is a White-Clawed Freshwater Crayfish, a protected species in Ireland.

It appears to have crawled into the bottle when it was smaller, moulted into a larger size, and got trapped.

Please don’t litter.

Spring Clean 2013 – Thank You!!

Saturday April 6th was Spring Clean 2013 and it was great to see volunteers from Clane Tidy Towns, Tír na Móna and many Residents’ Associations all out on the day giving Clane and it’s environs a thorough clean-up.

A JCB and tractor and trailer were again hired this year to help out, and over the course of the day the areas tackled included:

The yard and ditches by the Health and Leisure Centre (Behan’s Yard)
The “Capdoo Business Park” site beside Lidl
The ditch on the Celbridge Road opposite Lidl
Nancy’s Lane
The ditches from Betaghstown Cross to Boherhole Cross
A corner of the green near The Orchard, Loughbollard
The Ballinagappa Road

Many Residents’ Associations also took advantage of the fine weather to tackle their estates, and several trailer loads of clippings and litter were gathered and removed.

Whilst more than two large skip-fulls of rubbish were collected in this year’s event, it was heartening to note that areas receiving deep-cleans last year did not need serious attention this year. Perhaps an increasing awareness of recycling opportunities, a growing intolerance towards pollution in our countryside and a string of successful prosecutions for illegal dumping are beginning to pay dividends. However we must continue to be vigilent. Please report any dumping to Clane Tidy Towns or the Kildare Litter Warden hotline at 1800 243 143.

A big thank-you to all who contributed to the event, and especially to Cllr Padraig McEvoy for coordinating the activities in Clane.

Sailing into 2nd Place…Together

Clane Community Council was delighted to be awarded 2nd Prize for Non-Commercial Floats in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

With a hoard of Vikings returning back to Clane for the Gathering, their longship – the M.V. Clane – boasted shields featuring many aspects of Clane Community Council: Tidy Towns, The Friary, Community Games, The Abbey, Clanewatch, Heritage, and the Liffeyside Nature Park.

Spreading the message that as a community “We’re all in the Same Boat”, the float invited everyone to “Let’s all Row Together”.

Well done to everyone in the parade for putting on such a good show, and our congratulations to the hard-working St. Patrick’s Festival Committee, and to everyone who supported them, for running such a fantastic programme of events.

Clane Tidy Towns announces Community Tree-Planting Scheme

Clane Tidy Towns is delighted to launch a community tree-planting scheme to help mark 40 Years of Community in Clane. It is hoped to plant up to 40 trees in and around the community. All residents’ associations and owners of publically accessible land are invited to apply for some of these trees. Maybe an existing tree needs to be replaced, or maybe a few new trees would sit nicely in some corner. Professionals have kindly volunteered to work with the successful applicants to help identify suitable species, sizes and quantities of trees for each site.

Please see our dedicated Communty Tree-Planting project page for all the details, and the application form.

Clane Tidy Towns Award Night, and Person of the Year 2012

October 30th was the annual Awards Night for Clane Tidy Towns, with the eagerly awaited results announced for the 2012 Best Kept Estates and Best Presented Premises competitions.

With a record 21 local estates entering, prizes were awarded for Small, Medium and Large estate categories. Generously sponsored by Clane Project Centre, and supported on the night by local businesses Manzors, Doolans and P J Wallaces, the well deserving winners of Best Kept Estates were:

Small Estates:

1st Prize College Grove,
2nd Prize Mainham Wood.

Medium Estates:

1st Prize Park View,
2nd Prize Alexandra Park.

Large Estates:

1st Prize Abbey Park,
2nd Prize Central Park and Churchfield,
3rd Prize jointly awarded to Loughbollard and Alexandra Walk.

All estates that entered received a voucher to go some way towards recognizing the very valuable contribution they all make towards making Clane, our home, look so well.

Launched just a few years ago, the winner of the Best Presented Premises 2012 was also announced. This year the accolade went to Marron’s Pharmacy, and Lord Mayor of Clane Dessie Marron was delighted to receive the award.

The night was also the occasion when the identity of Clane Person of the Year, 2012, was revealed. This year Clane Community Council decided to award it not to an individual, but to an organization they felt embodies so much of what is good about Clane, and which truly demonstrates the deeper meaning of the word Community. Clane Person of the Year was awarded to the Clane Conference of Saint Vincent de Paul, and their President Austin Daly was honored to accept it on behalf of the 20 or so volunteers that work so hard for this tremendous organization, now supporting over 110 families in the immediate area. Special mention was also made of Moira Fogarty who could not be there on the night, but who has played such a key role in the organization since it’s inception over 28 years ago. Our sincere congratulations and gratitude to these very worthy winners.

Tidy Towns 2012 – the results are out!

The National Tidy Towns Competition results are out and all our businesses and organisations that are “Committed to Clane-Up”, all our residents that have maintained their ‘patch’, all our volunteers that weeded the main street, picked-up the litter, planted hedges and built nest-boxes can take a bow – Clane received a wonderful 274 points, an increase of 5 on last year.

This was a particularly uncertain year for Clane’s Tidy Towns Committee: due to recent growth in population we were moved up a category and in County Kildare are now in the same band as Kilcock, Athy and Kildare. However, joining this new category has encouraged the hard-working Tidy Towns team to think bigger, and we hope you’ll agree that the results can be seen in projects like the quickly maturing hedge on the approach road from Naas, the beautiful flower tubs on main street, the wonderfully maintained Garden of Remembrance (now carefully tended to by our Tús Scheme workers), and the nest and bat boxes that have gone up in and around the town.

The full adjudicator’s report for Clane can be downloaded from the Tidy Towns website. Why not take a look and see what caught the adjudicators eye – both good and bad. Perhaps you can think of new ways to help progress Clane even further in the competition – the committee would love to hear your ideas.

A big thank you again to everybody who contributed to Clane Tidy Towns 2012 – well done indeed.

Celebrate Heritage Week … in Clane

The week starting August 18th is National Heritage Week and this year we are delighted to announce it can be celebrated in Clane.

On Sunday 19th Clane Community Council has arranged a Wild About Clane Nature Walk by the Liffey, with experts from Birdwatch Ireland and Kildare Bat Group. The walk starts at 8pm in the Abbbeylands Shopping Centre Car Park.

On Tuesday 21st August starting at 8pm in the Library, Clane Local History Group are presenting a talk where local history experts will present on the topic Main Street Clane: Its Buildings and People.

Why not come out and enjoy your local heritage at one or both of these events…all are welcome and they are free of change. We look forward to seeing you there.