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), food and awareness (the next Sustainable Skerries Eco Night: Biodiversity planned for April 2023, our first Sustainable Skerries Eco Festival for September 2023), circular economy and waste reduction (Repair Cafés; jumble sales / car boot sales), sustainable energy (with Skerries Sustainable Energy Community Initiative) and sustainable transport (with Skerries Cycling Initiative). We also engage with Fingal County Council (e.g. in the consultation process for the next Fingal Development Plan). Join us! sustskerries@gmail.com
Skerries Eco Festival coming 1-3 September 2023
Encompassing all of Sustainable Skerruies areas of focus & more, with an Eco theme. Check back soon for details.
The Ballast Pit Walks are Back!
Reserve your space at the May Ballast Pit Walk now on Eventbrite.
Sun 21 May, 3 pm – 4.30 pm.
We’ll explore the Ballast Pit – starting at the Ballast Pit Pedestrian Lights – looking not only at bumblebees but also learning about why it is such an incredible natural resource. More details here.
Biodiversity Week Walk with Dominica McKevitt, Ardgillan’s Head Gardener
Thursday 25 May 2023, 7 pm, meet at the car park near the castle. Reserve your space now!
Pledge Your Garden For The Large Carder Bee
This bee is becoming increasingly rare throughout its entire European range.
We are lucky enough to have it here in Skerries and are embarking on a conservation plan to save it, but we need your help.
We need to expand and join the four discrete populations that we have by getting more pollen
and nectar into the environment and by establishing biodiversity corridors. This is where you come in!
Gardens are the ideal place to plant pollinator friendly flowers, and if we can establish a network of such gardens across the town we will be leading the way where others might follow.
It doesn’t matter whether your garden is large or small or whether you want to pledge all, some, or a little bit of it. You can choose to grow wildflowers, leave a patch wild, or continue with Garden Centre plants by favouring the right ones. Even a pot of herbs on an apartment balcony is welcome.
Sign up here today and get your free Gardening for Biodiversity booklet to start you off with some great ideas. (We will send you the PDF or give you a hard copy if you sign up at our stall!)
We will also be publishing information in the monthly Sustainable Skerries newsletter, which you’ll be subscribing to by pledging your garden (you can, of course, unsubscribe at any time).
Some past events:
On Tue 22 November 2022 more than 80 local people met to explore how we here in Skerries can tread more lightly into our future. Led by Sustainable Skerries, the Skerries Community Association had invited individuals, clubs, businesses, organisations, schools to come together and see what we can do if we connect our efforts. See more on SustainableSkerries.com/Eco-night
Pollinator Walk with Charlie and Marion, June 2022
Sunday 12 June 2022, 3 pm. It was great, by all accounts! Here’s the video:
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 💚
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 now 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.
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Sustainable Skerries 
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
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
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
Hello there I was just wondering if there are any allotments still available in Skerries as I am interested in taking one
thank you
Hi Dave,
please forward your enquiry to sustskerries@yahoo.ie
Regards,
Frank
Where do I get form for joining Allot. Assos?
Hi Paula,
send an email to sustskerries@yahoo.ie for the form.
Regards, Frank Mc Keown
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
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