County Mayor's DiaryCllr Gillian Coughlan

I was delighted to attend the Cork County Federation of Muintir na Tíre’s Pride in Our Community Awards last week, which has been sponsored by Cork County Council for over sixteen years, celebrating the resilience of our voluntary sector and the love and appreciation we hold for our local surroundings.

Everyone represented at the awards exemplifies the phenomenal community activism, placemaking and conservation work that defines life in Cork. I was especially honoured to present Cobh Tidy Towns with the Pride of County Cork Award.

The following day I visited West Cork to relaunch two wonderful placemaking initiatives; the official opening of the Truce Mural in Clonakilty and the relaunch of Dunmanway Playground.

Dunmanway Playground is a perfect symbol for the strength of community collaboration. Following the issuing of a seven year lease, which Cork County Council provided to the local committee, this same committee went on to fundraise over €50,000 and then to secure additional LEADER funding with support from Avondhu Blackwater Partnership.

The community’s dedication has resulted in a truly remarkable investment towards life in the town. This playground will be the home of many happy lifelong memories for children and their parents, and Cork County Council are proud to maintain and operate this amenity in support of, and with cooperation from the community it serves.

In Clonakilty, after a tour of some of the wonderful public amenities, including a converted telephone box that has been repurposed to serve as a book swap, I visited a mural created to celebrate one of Cork county’s most notable historic figures, Michael Collins.

The artwork commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the truce that marked the beginning of the end of the Irish War of Independence. This mural invites us to reflect on the contemporary significance of that time, to interpret and reinterpret what our history means for us now, and how it will influence our future.

I recently joined second class students in Scoil Phádraig Naofa in Bandon to re-launch the Picker Pals litter picking programme for schools. With the number of participating Cork county schools growing from ten to 100 in just one year, the future looks brighter with these young environmentalists. It is vitally important to empower our young people and by giving children a leadership role in litter-picking, as this programme does, it will inspire them to keep this anti-litter attitude throughout their lives, benefiting everyone in Cork for many years to come.

We all have a responsibility for how our future pans out, and one crucial way of exercising that responsibility is through participating in democratic life. The Draft Register of Electors has now been published, and I encourage every resident over the age of 18 to value your vote!

Check that your address and details are correct on checktheregister.ie by or before 25 November.