About

Empowering our community towards a sustainable and resilient future for Skerries.

Our aim is to make Skerries resilient, regenerative,
and a great place to live for all… now and in the years to come.

Sustainable Skerries, a committee of the Skerries Community Association CLG, is active in the areas of biodiversity (currently implementing the Skerries Pollinator Plan), water management (see here for more), raising awareness (for example, regular talks & walks; our cuppa for climate series; and we are planting mini orchards wherever local people would like them; our third Sustainable Skerries Eco Festival will take place in September 2025), circular economy and waste reduction (we hope to put on Repair Cafés and jumble sales / car boot sales), sustainable energy (with Skerries Sustainable Energy Community Initiative) and sustainable transport (with Skerries Cycling Initiative and the Skerries Community Association Transport Working Group). We also engage with Fingal County Council (e.g. in the consultation process for local plans, including the Fingal Development Plan). Join us! sustskerries@gmail.com 

Skerries Eco Winter Festival 2026: Save the Date: Sat 28/Sun 29 November

  • Skerries Eco Festival 2025 Look Back to follow soon

Cuppa For Climate Look Back: Mon 10 March 2025

It was soothing for the soul to meet up for our second Cuppa for Climate on Mon 10 March in The Rock Bakery, New Street. A good mix of people dropped in for a friendly chat, and we’re looking forward to more such informal meet-ups, also at other times of the day, such as Pints for the Planet or Brunch for Biodiversity (working titles). Suggestions welcome!

A big thank-you to all who joined us for our 2025 Annual Meeting!

It was possibly the biggest yet. We’ll publish a blogpost about it soon – where we will also introduce our new chair, Katie Lattimore! 💚

Click here or on the image below to go to an online version of our Skerries Eco Town Booklet.

For more details and the background, go to our Pride of Place page.

Who we are: The people that make Sustainable Skerries

In August 2024, we asked the people on our committee what motivated them. Here are their answers.

Catch That Raindrop! Online Talk with Féidhlim Harty, Environmental Consultant now available on YouTube

Save the bumble bees with Dave Goulson, May 2022

“Save the bumble bees” with Dave Goulson: What a fantastic event it was!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel 💚

What we do, and why

Through Sustainable Skerries, we work towards improving resilience in the town of Skerries.
By resilience, we mean the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; the ability to bounce back.
We seek to build this through a focus on the systems of our town, as they relate to food, waste, water, energy, and skills sharing.

This can mean, on a practical level:

  • contributing to the circular economy and waste reduction, e.g. through the promotion and support reuse, recycling, and especially of composting;
  • raising awareness around food issues, including the environmental and social impact of growing and / or purchasing food, food & transport (e.g. food miles), food waste, food citizenship and food security;
  • promoting positive climate action – identifying effective and meaningful local actions and ways to have an impact in the national and international context;
  • raising awareness and educating people of all ages through publications (like our blogposts), events, training and workshops both for the general public and in partnership with local schools (e.g. through TY projects)
  • exploring possibilities for skills exchange, such as with those who have lived in pre-plastic times; through the running of Repair Cafés, other ways to capture those skills could also be found
  • protecting and enhancing the local environment, including the support and improvement of the biodiversity of our town e.g. through the development of pollinator corridors and a survey of existing biodiversity
  • exploring energy resilience for our area, in partnership with the Skerries Sustainable Energy Community Initiative
  • being a credible voice locally in the relevant local forums and in local media

In order to fulfil our goals, we are linking up with other local groups, such as the Skerries Community Association (of which we are a committee) and our sister committee Skerries Tidy Towns, as well as with schools and local and national organisations and authorities (especially Fingal County Council).

We take the UN Sustainable Development Goals as our guidance and see the social and economic aspects of sustainability as important parts of sustainability.

Thank you!

We would like to thank the Skerries Community Association, of which we are a part, for their logistic and structural support.

Community Foundation for Ireland (CFI) provided funding for development of our pollinator plan, and then for its implementation, through their Environment and Nature Biodiversity programme 2019 and 2022.

We received moneys from the 2022 Community Activities Fund, for which we would like to acknowledge The Department of Rural and Community Development, Fingal County Council, and the Local Community Development Committee .

For the Open Orchards Project, we are grateful for funding from the Accenture Sustainable Community Challenge – Ireland via ChangeX.

Thank you, Skerries!

Most of all, we would like to thank all those in Skerries who are particpating in our joint efforts for a more sustainable, resilient, and regenerative way of living. Together, we can make a difference!

Join us at sustskerries@gmail.com

Sustainable Skerries is a committee of the Skerries Community Association LLC.
IE48AIBK93224821658188

17 Comments on “About

  1. Hi,

    I’m really interested in getting involved in the allotment program. I’m originally from Skerries, currently living in Drumcondra and hoping to move back to Skerries in the next year or two. can I get an allotment to work on or how does it work? I’m really interested in growing my own veg and would love to get involved.

    Many thanks

    Regards

    Emer O’Kelly

    • Hi Emer,
      We have a bit of a waiting list for allotments at the moment. However I would encourage you to get on the list asap. If you have a Skerries postal address that would help loads. Please send an email to sustskerries@yahoo.ie and one of us will pick it up.
      Cheers, Frank Mc Keown

    • Hidy

      Having great fun with mine Em, Sargh and I share

      See you soon

      Paula

  2. A new member at plot 42 Looking forward to getting started
    Breege Madden

    • Hi Breege,
      you obviously got your invoice from Fingal. I got mine last week. Never so happy to get a bill !!
      Happy Allotmenteering.
      Regards,
      Frank

      • Hi Frank
        Glad to hear from you .Yes looking forward to starting especially now as the weather is so good
        Breege

      • Hi Breege,
        are you going to the information meeting on Saturday? Will be a good chance for everyone to get information on the new Allotment Association.
        All the best,
        Frank

  3. Hi Frank,

    Happy owner of plot 116. Looking forward to Saturday’s meeting. See you then !

    Clionadh Twomey.

    • Hi Clionadh,
      yeah, Saturday should be a bit of craic now that we all have our plot numbers. Just time to get on with the hard work now.
      I got Gulag No. 87 🙂
      Frank

  4. Hello there I was just wondering if there are any allotments still available in Skerries as I am interested in taking one

    thank you

  5. Where do I get form for joining Allot. Assos?

  6. My name is Elaine Doyle and I am the Transition Towns Change Executive for Ashoka’s Change Nation for the next 6 months.

    I was wondering who is the best person to contact about transition towns in Skerries.

    I am mainly looking to see what activity is going on, good news stories and looking at how transition can be expanded and gain more traction in Ireland or what new initiatives can be used in other communities.

    It would be great to talk about Transition Towns Skerries and see is there anything I can do to help you.

    Kind regards
    Elaine

    • Hi Elaine,
      I sent an email to your gmail address.
      Thanks,
      Frank

  7. Global warming song on YouTube!

    More than 340 different green, environmental, conservation, organic, wildlife, recycling organisations – including the Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, Christian Ecology, Fossil Free Yale, BBC Gardeners World, Organic Council of Ontario, Sumo Wholefoods – in 31 countries like the lyrics to the Global Warming song – now it’s on YouTube! Here is the link for a performance by the Making Waves choir:

    And the words are printed on the screen so you can sing-a-long! You are very welcome to broadcast, and ‘like’ it, and share, share, share the link as widely as possible via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter …
    Best wishes,
    Oliver

    What can we do about global warming?
    (to the tune of ‘What can we do with the drunken sailor?’)

    Chorus: What can we do about global warming?
    What can we do about global warming?
    What can we do about global warming?
    Shrink our carbon footprint!

    1. Walk, cycle, bus and train
    Car share, avoid the plane
    Holiday at home, learn to love the rain
    Shrink our carbon footprint!

    2. Insulate homes and get them lined
    Stop oil, gas and coal being mined
    Use tidal, solar, wind and find we’ll
    Shrink our carbon footprint!

    Chorus: What can we do about global warming?
    What can we do about global warming?
    What can we do about global warming?
    Shrink our carbon footprint!

    3. Organic, local, seasonal eating
    Recycle, mend, turn down the heating
    Share, cooperate, stop competing
    Shrink our carbon footprint!

    Watch out! The seas are rising
    Cry out! The seas are rising
    Bale out! The seas are rising
    Save our lovely planet!

    4. Don’t believe the greenwash, keep on prying
    Tax millionaires, stop envy buying
    Climate change deniers, they’re all lying
    Shrink our carbon footprint!

    Chorus:
    We can do a lot about global warming
    We can do a lot about global warming
    We can do a lot about global warming
    Save our lovely planet!

    Lyrics by Oliver Swingler and Making Waves choir, Cullercoats, UK – Version 3 March 2013

  8. Really enjoyed the Wild Bee Festival this weekend! Lovely turnout despite the rain