Kildare Tidy Towns group start early for the Spring clean

IN the run up to ‘No Mow May’ Caragh Tidy Towns decided to get a jump on the tidying with engaging in some civic duties around the village.

It's National Spring Clean month and we kicked off April for the second year in a row by celebrating our passion for biodiversity and community here in Caragh Tidy Towns.

“It’s really about community and biodiversity,” explained Orlagh Reid.

“We’re such a small Tidy Town, and this brings a lot of colour to the village, and we’re trying to get the kids involved,” she said.

This week renowned artist James Kirwan well known large scale creative street art completed our project showcasing the beauty of our local biodiversity in Fr Kinsella park on our park walls and abandoned an unused unsightly container.

Orlagh invited Kirwan to work with the TT team to bring his beautiful expressive street art which can be seen around Ireland, Waterford city, Sallins and to now Caragh village.

“This is something putting colour into the village,” she said.

“There’s huge biodiversity her in the village, and last year we even put in a fairy walk,” she said.

“We’re just trying to put in things people can see,” she said “These outdoor art features bring awareness, attention and celebration of our local biodiversity, wildlife and environment in a positive way and bring the community together,” 2Principal Alan Hobbins and The local Caragh National School regularly joined in our TT project and help out.

“The new mural is receiving fantastic praise from the local community.

“It's real focal point - bringing biodiversity to the masses,” says John Lawler, chair of Caragh Tidy Towns.

“Its a linear street art collection of all our local flora and fauna. We are very committed to promoting biodiversity here in Caragh. This is just the latest inclusion!” These two biodiversity and wildlife-inspired mural has been a rewarding and creative collaborative project Local Councillor Rob Power provided a generous LPT donation to get the first mural over the line. The biodiversity visual street art project has been brought to life by artist James Kirwan who is passionate about nature and biodiversity.

James has been very supportive and engaging with the whole project from start to finish. "I paint quite a few of these murals now around the theme of biodiversity. They bring awareness about the types of wildlife that can be found around Ireland".