Glenasmole community group makes a difference to their area
By Mary Dennehy
THE community of Glenasmole flew the flag for South Dublin County in an environmental competition which aims to foster a greater appreciation and awareness of the country roadscapes in South Dublin and Wicklow – with the pro-active community scooping two awards in the process.
Over the past nine months, the community of Glenasmole has been actively engaging in a number of local projects as part of their participation in the PURE [Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments] Project – an environmental initiative established to combat the increase of illegal dumping and fly-tipping in the Wicklow/ Dublin uplands.
The competition encourages communities to focus on a mile-stretch of road in their locality, alongside focusing on the culture and heritage of the area – which resulted in the community of Glenasmole hosting a number of events including a Heritage Day, a crossroads céilí social evening and a campaign to catalogue the memorabilia, photographs and memories of local families.
Residents also gave the Glenasmole Community Centre a facelift and worked together to enhance and protect their local environment and its wildlife.
Glenasmole is the only Dublin area to participate in the project and this year joined 10 Wicklow communities at an awards night in Brooklodge on Thursday, September 24.
The Glenasmole community, which ran as Cunard Pure Mile in the competition, last year won the Best Newcomer award and this year scooped the accolades of Best Community Effort and Best Built/Social Heritage Pure Mile – winning prize money of €500.
Ian Davis, PURE project manager, said: “‘The Pure Mile Competition has developed into a very important community, environmental initiative, proving that people can make a difference to the area they live in.
“The community of Cunard deserves a huge amount of praise, and I congratulate them for enhancing and improving their area. I hope more groups from South Dublin will get involved in the 2016 PURE Mile competition and I look forward to working with more communities from this area.”
The awards night was also the official launch of the 2016 PURE Mile Competition, and again PURE is inviting all groups and communities living in rural areas of South Dublin to take part in the 2016 Pure Mile Competition.
The competition is open to all past, present, and new entries, with PURE encouraging special interest groups, scouts, cycling, running and walking clubs to adopt a mile of road in an upland area and take part in the competition.
PURE will supply all groups who enter the competition with bags, litter pickers and gloves and they will also remove all rubbish collected.
Anyone interested in the 2016 PURE Mile competition can request an application form and information pack by emailing info@pureproject.ie or it can be downloaded from www.pureproject.ie/what-we-do/the-pure-mile/.
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