Mountview and Blakestown residents have reacted angrily to the theft of a large number of flowers from the Sheepmoor area which were planted as part of the Pride of Place initiative.
Pride of Place is a national competition that acknowledges the work carried out by communities in maintaining their area.
The communities of Blakestown and Mountview have come together this year for a joint-effort entry in the “best urban neighbourhood” category, which is currently held by the nearby community of Mulhuddart.
The flower planting programme was part of the Pride of Place project.
Blakestown residents dug a series of flower beds from Huntstown as far as the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre roundabout but had no funding for flowers.
They contacted Cllr David McGuinness (Ind) who made some inquiries and 300 flowers were supplied at a discount by a Tallaght-based flower shop at which a local man works and the purchase was funded by local businessman Dave McCann of Dave McCann Tyres.
Several days later all of the plants from the Sheepmoor end were uprooted, causing much disappointment to residents who had worked hard creating the flower beds and planting the flowers.
Cllr McGuinness said the fact that the rest of the flowers from Whitestown as far as Huntstown have been left untouched is some consolation, but it is very disheartening for all of the hard work to be thwarted like this.
Uprooted
He said the fact that they were uprooted so soon and were not strewn about the place, points to an act of theft rather than petty vandalism.
“I suspect they were probably taken and brought down to some sort of fair and sold on.
“I actually raised it with council officials to ask if they had any experience of this. They said that this is a frequent occurrence and it happens right when you plant the flowers, because they haven’t taken root so they’re quite easy to take out.
“If it was a week or two down the road it would be more difficult to steal them,” he said.
He went on to say that the flowers were worth quite a bit of money, and as they weren’t taken out and thrown around he suspects that they will be sold “at knockdown price” at some sort of fair.
“It’s so deflating. We worked hard to get our hands on the flowers and the sponsorship to cut the cost, we spent hours getting them planted, these are public flowers, it did cost a lot of money and there was a lot of help to go and do it and all of a sudden they’re just taken,” he said.
A number of residents took to social media to voice their frustrations. One resident said: “That’s disgraceful, you try to do things, for the community, and that’s the thanks we get!”
“Absolutely terrible, I saw all the men and women planting them a couple of weeks ago, they did great work planting them,” said another.
However Cllr McGuinness said that this setback will not deter the residents from continuing to work hard in their community in their efforts to win a Pride of Place award.
Judging in the competition takes place over the days of July 28 and 29 with the finals taking place on November 14.
