By Ken Duffy

2022 has been a very busy and successful year for Swords Tidy Towns. We completed our butterfly Mural on the hoarding at Swords Garda Station and have started another one due for completion early in 2023 (details to follow). We also distributed a multitude of Leaf Cages in strategic areas around Swords which we will benefit from in 2023. We had a successful Halloween Bucket Collection at Swords Castle, a big thank you to everyone who contributed for their generosity on the night. Further new planters were put in place at the Garda Station at a blind spot to prevent possible accidents occurring. Digging, planting and mulching works were completed outside Colaiste Choilm school, (worth taking the time to have a look).

Swords Tidy Towns took part in a protest outside FCC offices with other concerned groups to prevent the rezoning of lands. Motion 535 wasn’t passed, the protest succeeded in saving the Rivervalley, Ridgewood and Knocksedan greenbelts from being rezoned. We once again in 2022 linked up with the TY students of St Finnian’s and Fingal Community Colleges to help them achieve their Irish Presidents Awards. STT received a Certificate of Appreciation at this years 2022 Mayors Awards and shared the Fingal Horticultural Society’s overall winners Trophy with FCC which showed the high regard that is held for our group. We achieved yet another Green Flag for our Rock Garden Park on the Rathbeale Road, this is a great place to sit and unwind to watch the world go by. We retained our Silver Medal status in the 2022 National Tidy Towns Competition, making it five in a row for our hard working volunteers. The landscaping works at our Welcome To Swords sign entering Swords from Ashbourne was completed, a great job was done by our partners FCC, a special thank you to Aileen O’Connor. We linked up with MSD Biotech in Swords on three projects, many thanks to them for reaching out and connecting with us. If you wish to keep up to date on what Swords Tidy Towns volunteers are doing, please go to our Facebook page and give us a like. If you wish to volunteer or make a donation we can be contacted at swordstidytowns@gmail.com