Cities Section: Category Two – Urban Neighbourhoods / Villages with a population over 3000

Winner:  Donnybrook, Dublin City

Donnybrook Tidy Towns was founded in 2011 and was set up to promote and empower village businesses and residents to contribute to a programme of heritage protection, enhancement of the streetscape and fostering an all-inclusive community spirit. The group has assisted other community groups in the area to focus on how they can contribute and feed into their Village, making decisions, taking ownership of the environment and utilising the support structures from the stakeholders.
There is great community pride in the response to Covid-19. WhatsAppResponse (WAR)  was set up vetting over 50 new volunteers and assisted over 129 callouts for assistance running shopping errands, DIY, Pet Sitting and lots more. The initiative was embraced by the community working in partnership with local An Garda Covid-19 response and Dublin City Council. A partnership was set up with local Mary Aikenhead day care centre providing them with volunteers for Meals on Wheels for their clients and assistance is ongoing.

Community Contact: Bernie Lillis, [email protected]

Citation:

For the winning entry the overarching group founded in the recent past has achieved so much in a relatively short space of time. Above all they have fostered an all-inclusive community spirit in their area. This committee is used as a focal point to organize a host of events and projects including the development of a new “village square”. They are deserving of the highest praise.