Ballymun the enterprising town

B4b welcomes judges to Ballymun for Bank of Ireland ‘Enterprising Town Award’

On Tuesday 3rd October, the judges from the Enterprising Towns Award came to visit Ballymun.  The visit was a great success and the judges were treated to a sample of the marvellous creativity, innovation, community engagement, social partnership, sustainability and leadership that exists in Ballymun.

We started off with a brief visit to the new Credit Union in the Civic Centre where they were greeted by Sinead Rooney.  The Judges were treated to ‘selfie postcard’ produced on Martin Eastwood’s selfie machine which was a novel way to kick proceedings off.

In the Council Chambers there was a great mix of community & enterprise on display and the judges met with the Market, Tidy Towns, Ballymun Adult Read & Write, Funky Monkey Foods, Youthreach and Setanta Strings who provided some lovely background music.  We then played a number of short videos featuring Gateway Student Village, Metro Hotel, Funky Monkey, Super Valu, Axis and Setanta Strings. These videos highlighted Ballymun as a great place to do business, live, work and the great community spirit that exists in Ballmyun.

The judges were clearly enthused and the videos were followed by a number of questions from the judges from the floor.   Local comedian and actor Eric Lalor was MC for the event.

We then moved from the Chamber to the Hub where the judges met with a number of start-ups and heard all about the hub and success stories to date.  That was followed by a walk across the plaza to the RDC where Roger gave a brief informative tour of the building before finishing off in Musgrave Market place where they were greeted By Brian Staunton.  Brian spoke to the judges about the history of Musgrave’s, success to date and local employment.  It wound up with a quick tour and some light refreshments.

We are very pleased with how the visit went and it really was a day to be proud of Ballymun.  It wouldn’t have been possible without huge collective effort and the hard work of the steering committee so well done to all.

The results will be announced at a ceremony in Tullamore on Wednesday, 15th November.  Fingers crossed!