Drimnagh is Good

Drimnagh lost out in the final stage of the Smarter Travel competition. I first wrote about Smarter Travel, Smarter Drimnagh in March 2010. As you can imagine it is so disappointing, a lot of hard work went into submitting the proposal by a lot of Drimnagh volunteers.

Letter from Minister

Here’s a copy of the letter from Minister Alan Kelly the Minister of State for Public and Commuter Transport.
1201 31 STA Results Minister Kelly (1)

Note from Dublin City Council

Further correspondence below was received from the Dublin City Council officials who also worked hard in getting the proposal ready for submission. And I know they are equally gutted that Drimnagh was not selected.

We are writing to you to let you know the outcome of the Smarter Travel Areas Competition of which we had word yesterday. The attached letter from Minister Alan Kelly refers. Unfortunately Drimnagh was not successful, the successful bids being Westport, Limerick and Dungarvan.

Dublin City Council is committed to continuing to work with the Drimnagh community and the relevant agencies to keep Smarter Travel Drimnagh alive. Alternative funding sources are being explored and in the meantime we will give as much time as possible to working with the community and schools etc. to promote smarter travel in the area.

We would like to thank everyone who worked so hard with us to develop an excellent Smarter Travel Plan for the area and who contributed to implementing the first stage of the plan last year. Drimnagh should be proud of its strong active community which is working every day to positively influence the area.

We look forward to continuing to work with you and to strengthen the relationships that have grown over the last two years.

Congratulations

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dungarvan, Westport and Limerick City on their win. It will be a great boost for their areas and we look forward to seeing how it develops.

What Next

Drimnagh Forum, the resident associations and members will be pursuing this further with our local representatives and with the Drimnagh Integrated Area Plan committee. As we believe that Drimnagh can be a great Smarter Travel community. We will keep you informed on correspondence received from our elected TDs and councillors in relation to this matter.

Drimnagh Show ‘n’ Tell 25th February 2012

Pauline — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:37:22 +0000

Show ‘n’ Tell

Drimnagh Residents Community Group and the Drimnagh Forum are holding an information event in Our Ladies Hall on Mourne Rd in Drimnagh on Saturday 25th Febuary. This will involve voluntary and public service providers having an information stand where they can promote their services, causes and interests.

Poster by the Street Feast crew

I LOVE this poster. Thought it fits in well with the Show n Tell day. As for the day to be a success we need people to leave the comfort of their sofas and get involved in the day. The poster is a lovely reminder on what it takes to make a community.

Come see what people, groups and community services are doing in Drimnagh for the Drimnagh people. There is a lot going on and it will be great to have it all on show under the one roof.

Contact details and more news about Show ‘n’ Tell will be coming soon. And as always you can leave a comment here and I’ll pass it on.

Drimnagh. We deserve better.

Pauline — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:51:09 +0000

Drimnagh Forum

I’ve just come back from Drimnagh Forum’s first meeting of 2012 and I’m inspired. I was further inspired when I got home and read this great blog post by @mike_rawlins in the UK on the Pits n Pots website. He was having a small rant about the lack of Attention to Detail in publications from his local council. It’s a good post, in particular the last two lines.

“I want Stoke-on-Trent to improve, I want it to succeed, I want the council to be better.

We deserve better”.

That’s Why…

….the Drimnagh Forum exists because it wants better for Drimnagh. It wants to work together with local community groups, local representatives and with the local council in making Drimnagh succeed. Working better takes time, energy and effort from a lot of people on all sides. But sure we all know that Drimnagh is worth it. Right??

Quick Report

Short rundown of what was discussed this evening.

Drimnagh Festival #DrimFes12 ( May 2012, volunteers needed)
Drimnagh Smarter Travel #DrimST (All Year, people get walking)
How to promote the new Drimnagh Forum (ideas on a postcard or tweet)
Look and content for new Drimnagh Forum website (coming soon)
Notifying all relevant groups, politicians, local authorities of change of name and new website.
Administration access for groups onto website
Social Media Training for Drimnagh Forum groups
Community Grants (deadlines looming) Any grant fanatics out there we need you!!!
Show n Tell day for Drimmagh community groups (proposed end of February)
Issues and concerns raised re Household charges and Bin charges
Congratulations – to the Good Counsel GAA under 21s on recent win
Role and purpose of Drimnagh Forum needs to be clarified
Policing Forum

More to follow soon on the Drimnagh Forum. What would you like the Drimnagh Forum to do for you?

p.s The Drimnagh is Good Facebook page has just over 700 followers. Check it out for more regular Drimnagh updates and news.

Two Penny Toffees and a Loose Cigarette

Pauline — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:10:01 +0000

Extract a blog called Ramblings by Alan Carroll

When I was a small kid in the 1970s there was a little shop up the street in our little suburb of Drimnagh in South Dublin, Ireland. We called it ‘the kiosk’ and it sat in the roundabout in front of our church.The kiosk sold everything from cigarettes to ice-pops, popcorn and toffees, chocolates and shampoo, the list goes on and on. You never actually got to go into the kiosk, they served customers through a small window at the front of this funny little building, it didn’t look much bigger than our kitchen (and our kitchen was not big believe me) but I yearned to see inside, I imagined there was a secret trap door in the floor which would lead you down a metal spiral staircase to a large basement, alas I never got to appease my curiosity……..

You can read the rest of the blog post by Alan at this link below.

http://carrollnumber7.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-penny-toffees-and-loose-cigarette.html

I’m sure there are many more stories like this one. If you have one you would like to share let us know by adding a comment here or emailing us at drimnaghisgood@gmail.com There is a couple of people working on creating a digital community archive of images, videos and stories from the past at the moment and are always interested in getting more people involved.

Drimnagh Needs Community & Festival Volunteers

Pauline — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:05:14 +0000

Drimnagh People Wanted.

Things are really starting to happen for Drimnagh and we need more people involved. At the moment Drimnagh has a few people doing a lot of great work. THAT NEEDS to CHANGE if Drimnagh wants to be the driving force in making Drimnagh a great place to live.

We need a lot of people doing less work on a more regular basis to make these projects successful.

What can you do? Get involved in one of these areas.

FOR FUN – Drimnagh Festival 2012

Next meeting is Thursday 24th November 2011 in the Bosco Youth Centre at 7.30pm. There’s a great group of young people leading the Festival for 2012 and they are looking for ideas, people and local businesses to get involved.

FOR HEALTH -Drimnagh Smarter Travel 2011-2012

Take this survey for a start http://www.mco.ie/resource It will only take 5 minutes. Become a Drimnagh Walking leader and donate 4 hours a month of your time to helping people get out of the house and get fit (training & regular support provided). More details to follow soon.

FOR COMMUNITY - Drimnagh Forum

Please come along to the Drimnagh Community Network AGM this Tuesday the 22nd at 7pm in the Bosco Youth Centre to find out more about how you can get involved.

Drimnagh Community Network is an umbrella organisation representing Drimnagh people and organisations at statutory level. This is where decisions are made on your behalf about all sorts of things, health, employment, planning, parks, disability and sports. Recently the network made some changes to its name and structure. The reason for this change is that it is now becoming a part of the Dublin County Council Community Forum. This will provide Drimnagh with a more structured format in getting it’s views heard and dealt with by the right boards and statutory bodies.

So what do you think? Have you 5 hours a month to spare? Have you got a skill or resource that would help these committees? Let us know at drimnaghcommunitynetworkl@gmail.com or make a comment below.

Drimnagh Smarter Travel Launch

Pauline — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:10:11 +0000

Smarter Travel Drimnagh Community

Get around faster on bus, bike, luas or foot and have more U time!

To enter the Smarter Travel Drimnagh photo competition to win these fab goodies just click like us on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/DrimnaghisGood. Then post your photo’s with a note of the street in Drimnagh you live/work onto the above facebook page or email them to edel.kelly@dublincity.ie

The winner will be announced at the Smarter Travel Drimnagh Community event on Sunday 20th in St John Bosco Youth Centre 12-3pm with a family fun walk of our new Sli na Slainte route at 1pm

Travel smarter, faster, healthier and arrive in style!

A big big thanks to U Magazine https://www.facebook.com/UMagazine for supporting the Smarter Travel Drimnagh Community! Show your thanks by liking them too!

Prizes from U Magazine!

More prizes from U Magazine!

Bunting on Sperrin Road.

Pauline — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:55:21 +0000

Dublin City Council has asked for bunting to be set up on Sperrin Road the in conjunction with the Drimnagh Smarter Travel Plan. It is hoped that it would be up by the 14th November and any assistance from residents in or around Sperrin Road will be much appreciated. Further information will be made available on the Drimnagh Is Good website when it arrives.

-PK

Drimnagh Groups We Want You

Pauline — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:39:40 +0000

New Drimnagh Forum

Over the last few months different groups from from Drimnagh attended various meetings with Dublin City Council in the Father Lar Redmond Centre. These meetings are hosted by the Dublin City Council officials hosted by Dublin City Council. The purpose of the meeting was to get a collective decision from the groups about forming a forum from Drimnagh to be a part of the Dublin 12 and Dublin city community forum.

Who was there

Groups in attendance were

Keeper Rd Residents
Fr Lar Redmond Centre
Drimnagh Residents Community Group
St John Bosco Football Club
Drimnagh Community Network
Over 60s Forum
Drimnagh Celtic Football club

Currently Drimnagh Community Network has representatives sitting on the following local statuatory boards. These representatives are volunteers & act as ambassadors for Drimnagh.

Dublin 12 Local Drugs Task Force
Dublin 12 Local Policing Forum
Drimnagh Integrated Area Plan Monitoring Committee

It is believed that there are roughly 50-60 active groups in Drimnagh from sporting groups to dance groups to resident associations.

The aim of this new forum is to build a database of all the groups in Drimnagh & keep them informed of what is happening & what local decisions are being made on their behalf. It was agreed that the Drimnagh Community Network would be the forum for Drimnagh.

Get in touch

So are you in a group in Drimnagh? Are your issues being heard? Do you want to have a say in what happens in Drimnagh?

If so leave a comment with your group details & tell us how you would like to be involved. A generic email address for your group would be great. We look forward to hearing from you.

Dublin Bikes Wants to Know What Drimnagh Thinks

Pauline — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:10:59 +0000

Drimnagh Survey Time

Survey Time

Dublin Bikes’ is expanding – and they want your feedback.

Win An iPad 2

Complete their short survey and be in with a chance to win an iPad 2. This is your chance to give your views on the scheme and its proposed expansion.

If you complete the survey you automatically are in the draw for the iPad 2.

Here’s the link to the Dublin Bikes survey . It should only take about 5-10 minutes of your time.