The Great Wall of Ballyconnell

Have you noticed the wall after the N87 roundabout on the way into Ballyconnell town?

Perhaps not before, but since the clean-up by the Clever Clogs children, you can actually see the grey stone wall.

Having heard a call from Ballyconnell Tidy Towns Committee asking people to contribute to the upkeep of the town, manager of Clever Clogs childcare facility, Paula Donohoe, decided it was an excellent opportunity to teach her preschoolers a “life lesson” on civic responsibility.

The big wall was no match for the Clever Clogs preschoolers, who walked to the wall in groups of five over the course of three days. They pulled on their gloves and high visibility jackets and cleared the weeds away, filling eight bags full of clippings.

“Many hands make light work,” Paula said, especially when they are little hands.

“We completed the great wall of Ballyconnell this morning,” Paula enthused.

While having fun in the sun, Paula and the rest of the pre-school staff were trying to teach the little people to look after the environment in their community.

“There’s a lovely learning factor in it; you are never too young or never too old to contribute.”

With excitement radiating from the children about their project, Paula hoped that the importance of keeping your community tidy will carry home to parents, guardians and the wider public.

“It’s a life lesson for people who saw,” she said, praising everyone who encouraged the children by waving, beeping their horns or commenting on their work as they passed by.

“It’s learning to give and not take,” Paula said.

“There’s a lot of us here, whether young or old, who can contribute at some level.”

Paula walks to the local national school daily to collect children as part of her after-school service. Now, she admires the pre-school children’s efforts. The group who took on the challenge of weeding the wall will be graduating this year.

“They really did work hard and I am so proud of them. When I look at the wall, I think ‘we did that’.”

“I am hoping it is something they will carry forward in their lives.

“It’s good to contribute,” she said, for the kids and for the business.

The children’s efforts were rewarded with ice-cream and stickers from the chairperson of Ballyconnell Tidy Towns Committee, Taragh Donohoe, who is most grateful for the children’s contribution to keeping Ballyconnell tidy.

“To start with the youngest upwards, it’s really beautiful,” Taragh said.

“It shows people that, if these little kids can do it, anybody can do it.”

The committee has a night of cleaning and planting on every Wednesday evening in June in a bid to clean up the town and to get people in the community out and socialising. Taragh encouraged people young and old to come along.

“It’s about being neighbourly as much as it is about making the town pretty and safe.”

The town is undergoing an upgrading phase, according to Taragh, with funding received to refurbish the roof of the current community centre, which has been closed for the past six years. The community centre is due to open at the end of the year.

“Ballyconnell is the biggest town in west Cavan and there’s no community centre,” Taragh said.

She further explained it is “desperately needed” for kids, young people, adults, and the elderly alike to meet.

The town has also received funding from Creative Places programme, which will be used to “rejuvenate Ballyconnell and make it a place that people want to live, work and visit”.

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