Tidy Town Annual Clean Up Brings the Shankill Community Together

Saturday 22nd April 2017 was the perfect day for the Tidy Towns Annual Clean Up, not only because it coincided with Earth Day, but also because the weather could not have been more helpful.

All the brave volunteers gathered at the Garda Station in Shankill and at the top of Quinn's Road for the start of the clean up. The event took place from 2 p.m. until approximately 4:30 p.m. and was followed by a barbecue courtesy of Brady's Pub.

As the main organiser, Shankill Tidy Towns provided all the necessary tools and equipment. An impressive number of local people, including members of the scouts team and local politicians, joined them to make the village cleaner and tidier.










Shankill proved once again that there is a great sense of community in the village and that it will be a serious competitor in this year's Tidy Towns competition.









Lots of children participated in the event with their parents, so well done to them!

One cannot feel but admiration for the volunteers and the members of Shankill Tidy Towns organisation who took from their free time to participate in this spring clean up, which hopefully will be rewarded again in the Tidy Towns competition.

Shankill Tidy Towns Annual Clean Up Day 2017

Shankill Tidy Towns are holding their Annual Clean Up Day this Saturday 22nd April.

Below you will find their message for everyone who would like to help.

We're hoping for more volunteers so we hope you’ll join in a number of community work groups by turning up at 2p.m. at the Quinns Road Roundabout or at the Garda Station on the 22nd. If you have any litter pickers, tools or Hi-Vis jackets please bring them along. We need everybody involved, young and old to make some contribution to the appearance of our neighbourhood by tackling grass edges, trees or bushes protruding on to the footpaths, sweeping, weeding, etc. 
We really hope we get a good turn out this year and the weather will allow us to get loads done.  We need your help to ensure that Shankill remains a great place in which to live and we look forward to seeing you on the 22nd at 2 p.m. All participants are invited to join us for some food in Brady's at 4:30 p.m.

Ho Ho Ho, Christmas in the Village!

What a beautiful day everyone had on Sunday, 27th November, when Shankill Main Street was turned into a winter wonderland for the second edition of the already long-awaited Christmas in the Village festival.

Supported by DLR County Council and Shankill Business Group, the event was a wonderful celebration of the Christmas spirit and the result of local initiative and hard work.

A wide range of surprises, from Santa’s Grotto, the Petting Farm and the Festive Market Stalls to the Kids' Zone and live music took place from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m., marked midway by Santa's appearance driven by who else but John Brady, owner of Brady's Pub. While waiting for Santa, everyone went around the market stalls to buy Christmas gifts. The already well-known Shankill calendars, which are done every year by the award-winning Shankill Tidy Towns team and feature photos sent by the village's professional and amateur photographers, were on sale as well.

Here is a special photo we took with the permission of the Shankill Tidy Towns team. We are proud to share it with everyone and to say a big congratulations to them for their amazing work in the village, which this year brought them the overall prize winner of the 2016 Tidy Districts Competition.

All the children were extremely excited to meet with some famous Star Wars characters as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, who made many friends in the street and brought lots of smiles and hi-fives.

At 3:30 p.m. Santa showed up in the village and was welcomed by everyone as the rightful bringer of joy, gifts and childhood memories.

  

A huge thank you and well done to the organisers.
Now the Christmas spirit has officially arrived in the village!

Volunteers needed for SCAN

SCAN (Shankill Community Association Newsletter) is the monthly community newsletter that was delivered to households monthly free of charge until about two months ago. It won 1st prize for Community Services in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's Community Awards 2011. Now SCAN needs volunteers who will help continue writing and delivering the newsletter. If you have some free time or know someone who does, please ask them to contact SCAN on scanshankill10@eircom.net. More about the history of SCAN here.

Thank you, Rosalie!

Shankill is a safe and beautiful village and we want it to stay the same at all times.

An incident however happened recently not far from the Centra shop in Shankill (some sources mentioned the Holly Park area more exactly).

Rosalie L., the brave make-up artist from Shankill, who was assaulted by an unknown man in his 40's on the 3rd January 2016, has chosen to write a Facebook post about this traumatic event so that people can be more careful when they walk alone in the dark.

You can see Rosalie's Facebook message below.

Hey everyone. I was debating whether or not to post this as I didn't wanna worry people or seem like I am looking for...
Posted by Rosalie Lockhart on Monday, 4 January 2016

The case is under Garda investigation and it is understood that house-to-house enquiries are ongoing in the area.

Thank you, Rosalie, for helping to keep our village safe!

The Christmas Story in Trees at St. James's Church, Crinken

From the 4th to the 6th December this year St. James's Church is welcoming everybody to their Christmas Tree Festival. The event has been very well promoted both on their social media channels as well as during the Christmas in the Village event which took place in Shankill village a week ago.

The festival is part of the church's 175th anniversary events and tells the story of the birth of Christ through Christmas trees and verses from the Scriptures. 

There are around 40 Christmas trees in the church decorated by local schools, community groups, and businesses. The beauty of the event is not only in the design of each and every tree, but also in the way all the trees have been arranged together to set the scene for what the organisers have called the "Journey to Bethlehem". 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/crinkenchurch

As you enter the church, you will be warmly welcomed by one of the church volunteers and handed a brochure, which details the story of each tree. You can then go around the church to have a look at each tree as the story of the birth of Jesus unfolds in front of you with every Christmas tree and every quote attached to each and every one of them. From natural fir trees to trees made of books and other materials, every single tree tells both the story of Christ but also the story of the community who put so much effort into preparing it for this special occasion.

 

Before you leave the church, you are invited to sample a few refreshments in the hall and share your thoughts with the other members of the community. Also, someone will most probably invite you to the Carols by the Candlelight event which is going to take place next Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

A truly inspiring event open to everybody and revealing a great sense of community overall. The admission is free, but, if you wish to make a donation, you will be happy to find out that it will be used to support the work of The Storehouse (a project to create a food bank for people in need this Christmas).

Christmas Cheer in the Village

There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a community coming together in preparation for Christmas. The colours and the joy of the season are unique every year.

Today, everybody gathered in the village for the three events that marked the beginning of the Christmas celebrations in Shankill.

 

Christmas in the Village

Although the weather was cold and rainy, the atmosphere was great on Shankill Main Street, where from 1 pm to 6 pm everyone could browse the festive stalls selling glittering gifts, cards, decorations, and crafts and warm up with mulled wine, crepes, doughnuts, mince pies and other treats.

The children could take a ride on the carousels besides Brady's Pub and also try out the obstacle course. Santa made a very special visit to Shankill bringing gifts for all the children present in the village. Street performers, jugglers and live music performed by the Bray Gospel Choir and Tumbleweed made the day even brighter and happier for everybody.

Swan Winter Craft Fair

This event was organised by SWAN (Supporting Women & Networking in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown) and took place in Stonebridge Community Facility. Lots of businesses and crafters sold their items ranging from handknitted gifts to stocking fillers for dogs and cakes.

St. Anne's Parish Christmas Fair

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. everyone could drop in to St. Anne's Resource Centre to warm up with hot food and drinks and have some pancakes and mince pies. The organisers also included a Wheel of Fortune and lots handcrafted items and cakes for sale.

To add to the overall seasonal joy, everyone could enter lots of raffles at each of the three locations with prizes from hampers and vouchers to meals, cameras and money prizes.