Raheny Tidy Village Group Newsletter - Winter 2025
- Raheny Tidy Village
- Dec 20, 2025
- 4 min read
We are absolutely thrilled to begin this December newsletter with the fantastic news that Raheny won a gold medal for the second time at the SuperValu National Tidy Towns Awards this year! 🏆
This incredible achievement is a testament to the dedication, hard work and community spirit of our volunteers, residents, local businesses and partners throughout the years. We are immensely proud of what has been achieved together.
Community Garden
The Community garden, in partnership with Our Lady Mother of Divine Grace Parish, remained a hive of activity, producing vegetables and herbs which were shared with the community, and we were delighted to welcome visitors on Saturday mornings.
You may have noticed the new shed in the Community Garden. It has been long awaited and looks great; we needed storage for all the equipment we use in the garden. This was funded by the Community Climate Action Grant from Dublin City Council.
We have prepared the garden for winter by planting garlic, overwintering plants from village planters and continuing essential maintenance.
Leaf Fall
Leaf fall season kept our volunteers busy across the village. Leaves were gathered into our leaf cages to create leaf mould, which will be used as an excellent mulch for flower beds around the village. This is an perfect example of sustainable, circular practice. We also encouraged residents to leave leaves on flower beds where possible, supporting soil health and providing shelter for insects and pollinators.
Keeping Raheny Clean
Our litter-picking teams, including many younger volunteers, worked tirelessly throughout Autumn, particularly along the River Santry, preventing litter from reaching our seas and beaches. Graffiti removal, winter planting and path clearing continued despite the sometimes challenging weather!
Dublin City Neighbourhood Awards
At the Dublin City Neighbourhood Awards, Raheny Tidy Village received 3rd place for Main Street in the Best Mixed-Use Street category, while Flourish Minimal Waste Grocery earned 3rd place for sustainability initiatives. These awards highlighted the strength of community action across the North Central Area.
Pesticide Free!
We are especially proud that Raheny was recognised nationally as a Pesticide-Free Town by the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, achieving full marks for eliminating pesticide use. Mechanical and hand weeding may be hard work, but the benefits for biodiversity are enormous.
Community Events
Our Annual Seed Swap and Community Garden Open Day were great successes, showcasing the circular economy in action and helping ensure a colourful village next spring. The Seed Library in Raheny Library continues to be a wonderful shared resource for gardeners.
We gathered for the annual beach clean in September. This year, we covered Dollymount beach, causeway, coast road and around St Anne's Park duck pond. Not as much rubbish as last year but lots of wet wipes and dog poo bags!
We had great fun looking at all the entries this year for the annual Tallest Sunflower competition. It was very close in the end with four entries over three meters!
In November, our Upcycling Event with Angela Holland was a standout highlight. Participants learned how to make beautiful tote bags from repurposed materials, raising an amazing €895 for St Francis Hospice.
Members of the Raheny Tidy Village Group helped out as stewards at the Raheny Christmas Lights Party and Market, which is organised by the Raheny Business Association. This event is a wonderful celebration of local business, craft and community. A huge thanks to all volunteers involved.
Action plans
We launched our Biodiversity Action Plan funded by Community Foundation Ireland and in partnership with Dr Mary Tubridy.
We also completed our Circular Economy Plan funded by Community Foundation Ireland and created in partnership with VOICE. These plans will inform and guide our work over the coming years.
Work continues under the Climate Action Plan, our dispersed orchard is planted and is thriving. We planted pollinator friendly flower beds on Station Road and we are currently installing water butts throughout the local community. These will alleviate flooding during rainfall events.
Winter planting
Our winter planting has been with cyclamen and hellebores bringing much-needed colour to the village, while spring bulbs were planted in anticipation of brighter days ahead.
Festive Season and Looking Ahead
December has been a time of reflection and celebration. Our Christmas get-together in the Manhattan was a wonderful evening, celebrating our volunteers and awarding the much-coveted Golden Picker and Golden Paintbrush. Thank you to the Manhattan team for their warm hospitality.
As we move through the festive season, we continue to promote a sustainable Christmas — shopping local, reducing waste, reusing materials and supporting our community wherever possible. We also encourage everyone enjoying our parks and beaches over Christmas to try the 2-Minute Litter Pick.
Join Us
We meet every Saturday Morning at 10:30 a.m. at the front of the Church in the Village. Everyone is welcome and no commitment is necessary. Volunteers should complete the volunteer form on our website before joining. Under 18's must be accompanied by a guardian. Please complete the volunteer form here.
If you would like to contact us, email rahenytidyvillage@gmail.com, or message us on Facebook or Instagram.
If you would like to sign-up for our newsletter, enter your email address in the Subscribe form at the bottom of the newsletter page.
Thank You
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire Raheny community. To residents, volunteers, Dublin City Council, schools, businesses, sporting and cultural groups - for your support throughout the year. Together, we have made Raheny a cleaner, greener and more vibrant place to live!
We look forward to building on this success in the year ahead and can’t wait to see what 2026 brings for Raheny.
