Plenty of helping hands across Williamstown community

YOUR TIDY TOWNS IN FOCUS

THE spirit of Meitheal is alive and well in Williamstown, where their Tidy Towns Group is thriving.

On the morning The Tuam Herald visited the village, several volunteers were on hand, participating in what has become a daily cleanup of their parish.

“This group was founded by my mother Josie back in 1974, as a means of preparing the village for the annual Corpus Christi Procession,” recalled Noel Finnegan, Chairperson of the Williamstown Tidy Towns Committee.

“A local councillor at the time began enticing those involved with these cleanups to think about setting up a tidy towns group, which has been looking after the parish ever since.

“It started with us planting a few trees and flower beds around the village but has developed significantly into the group you see here today who do so much more.”

The group currently has 15 regular members, who, through a rota system, make sure somebody is on litter watch every day of the week.

This is on top of regular meetups where members are out painting walls, cutting the grass, trimming hedges and washing the various road signs scattered around the village.

A lot of the work they do is helped by several other groups from the village, who are just as keen to make Williamstown a place that sparkles in the summer sunshine.

They include the GAA club, Williamstown Development Company, the Pride of Place Committee and members of the local Heritage Society, a group which has worked hard with the Tidy Towns Committee to achieve several national accolades.

“Our points in the Tidy Towns Competition have been consistently growing, while in 2023 we were successful in the inaugural heritage category of the competition,” recalled Leo Finnegan, a Tidy Towns volunteer who is also the Chairperson of the Williamstown Heritage Society.

“That was for our work in the Templetogher Heritage Area and on the back of that success, we were asked by Galway County Council to represent them in the Pride of Place Final in the under 300 population category, where we came second in the country.

“They are three massive successes, none of which would be possible without the work which we are doing in tandem together, Tidy Towns and the Heritage Society.”

Williamstown has seen significant gains in Tidy Towns points over the past four years, rising from 318 points in 2021 to 357 in 2024, an increase of 39. A lot of this can be attributed to the various projects that they have completed during that time.

They recently purchased 1,200 bees that will now call Williamstown their home and fought to get footpaths and street lighting along the Bog Road, a nationally recognised trail. Their latest endeavour saw them sprucing up water pumps throughout the parish.

“There were nine old fashioned water pumps scattered about in different locations and we have refurbished seven of them so far,” added Noel.

“This was only possible with the help of people living in the vicinity. Everyone was happy to do their bit to make the whole parish look its best and maintain a part of Williamstown’s history.”

Another impressive project can be found in the village square, a biodiversity inspired bottle cap mural which was created with help from some of the students at Sacred Heart National School.

Williamstown Tidy Towns have been keen to include children in their projects and cleanups wherever possible. It has led to a Junior Tidy Towns Group being setup at the school.

“The Junior Tidy Towns is about giving the kids a desire to look after their school grounds through little things like regular litter picks and watering the plants,” explained Principal James Coyne, himself an active member of the village’s Tidy Towns group.

“We would hope this inspires them to do the same at home and think about joining the main tidy towns group when they are older.

“They begin seeing the values of these cleanups, build a connection to their areas and a pride in how it looks. Noel has been key to promoting this in our school through many visits and events he organises.”

With people of all ages out in force during the Tuam Herald’s visit, it was clear that there was a great community spirit and sense of pride in what was being achieved in a village with such a small population.

Yet the Williamstown Tidy Towns Committee are not resting on their laurels, and have plenty of other projects in the pipeline, including a new community sensory garden.

While already availing from a core of 20 volunteers, a mix of Tidy Towns and Heritage Society members, Noel stressed that a few extra hands would be a significant help. It would take some of the workload off his team, who are out doing several jobs every day of the week.

“Any extra man, woman and child will be greatly appreciated. It is a lovely get together of people who have a shared interest in the look of the village,” noted Noel.

“A lot of people say to me I don’t get involved because I haven’t been asked, or that they don’t want to attend meetings. But they can get involved by just joining us anytime they see us working on something. We will always find a job for anyone who wants to help,” he concluded.

Anyone interested in getting involved with Williamstown Tidy Towns can contact Noel Finnegan at noelfinnegandj@gmail.com.

This is a special series in our paper at the moment, if you would like your Tidy Town group to be featured, please email editor@tuamherald.ie