How proud are Skerries people of Skerries? The answer is, of course: Very. So when Fingal County Council recently nominated us for the Climate Action and Biodiversity Award of the all-island Pride of Place competition, we were rightly chuffed.

IBP pride of place 2024 is an all-island competition run by Cooperation Ireland. It acknowledges and celebrates the work communities are doing all over the island of Ireland.

And now we would like to invite all of you who can come along on Mon 2 September to join us in celebrating the “Skerries Sustainability Ripple Effect” – we will have two visitors, judges with Cooperation Ireland (the organisation behind Pride of Place), here in our town who want to know what exactly sustainability means to us: What is being done in Skerries for biodiversity and for climate action, and how that has had an impact on all of us here in Skerries.

So: You are all invited to join us for the Skerries Pride of Place Day!

• Mon 2 September, 2 – 4.30 pm: Skerries Evaluation

We hope you can join us for the afternoon when the Pride of Place judges come to evaluate what we call the “Skerries Sustainability Ripple Effect.” 

Our emphasis on the day is on all the biodiversity and climate action happening in Skerries, the “Skerries Sustainability Ripple Effect” (See more about the Pride of Place day on our here.)

So it is super important for the judges to meet people we’ve worked with in Climate & Biodiversity, like yourselves!

The rough plan for the day is:

• 2 pm Judges arrive in Skerries: Short introduction to our place & presentation (slideshow) in the Skerries Community Centre (Room 1 or Little Theatre), followed by the official “opening” of the Skerries Eco Town Wall in the Skerries Community Centre
  • (Tour of Skerries for the judges, with stops in 3 locations; we will be in touch with people directly regarding who might be waiting for the visitors at which location; if we don’t see you ‘on location,’ we hope to see you back at four pm at the Mills)
• 4 pm Skerries Mills Community Garden / Skerries Mills Terrace Café: Final visit & refreshments for everyone involved.

Skerries Eco Town Wall

The Skerries Community Centre had offered wall space in its revamped main building to Sustainable Skerries to highlight all the eco things happening in our town. We felt that it wasn’t right to just have one group as the ‘headline act’ as it’s really more an eco web in our town, or an eco town – which was actually the heading which our illustrator, Niamh Sharkey, suggested and which we then went with. This was made possible through a Fingal County Council Anti Graffiti Anti Litter Grant, which we gratefully acknowledge. The wall design is being printed right now. Below are just a couple of details from it. Come along on Mon 2 September to be among the first to see it in its full glory, just opposite the sports hall!

Please let us know if you can make it on this form, which also has 3 very quick questions for you to answer which will help us in preparing for that day.  If you’ve already filled in the form, thank you! If in doubt, fill it out. Better twice than not at all!

Kind regards,

Sabine, for the Pride of Place Organising Team, Skerries

PS: Fingal even created a video about us and the other two Fingal nominees, Lusk (Pride of Place overall) and Dublin 15 (Integration).